Panther King with Wings
by JuneiTheScerzo
Summary: Hiro Mashima and Tite Kubo decide to have some collaborative fun with the Sexta Espada in deciding whether or not he comes back from the dead to fight the Quincy Wandenreich! Rated T for the swears that define Grimmjow Jeagerjaques, some violence, alternate meanings of multiple things, and the like. Enjoy it!
1. Indefinite

Mangakas Hiro Mashima and Tite Kubo decide to have some collaborative fun with the Sexta Espada in deciding whether or not he comes back from the dead to fight the Quincy Wandenreich!

Rated T for the swears that define Grimmjow Jeagerjaques, some violence, though not any more intense than Bleach or Fairy Tail itself, alternate meanings of multiple things, and the like. Takes place right after Grimmjow's supposed "death" and right at the beginning of the Galuna Island Arc. Also, the Fourth Wall exists for everyone but Grimmjow.

**Hi, JTS is back with...get ready for it...my second story! *fangirls self into unconsciousness***

**JK I'm fine. I've been working on this segment for somewhere around three weeks, which is a surprisingly long time for me. But then again, I haven't been constantly working on it, so it's fine. This intro is longer than any of the following chapters will be, I'll tell you that. I got this idea after wondering whether or not Grimmjow was gonna come back, which is a widely disputed subject among fan bases, so this is my way of expressing my feelings about his return. If Grimmjow doesn't change at least a little, we'll have a few problems with him fighting Yhwach. Like he won't protect anybody. Problem.**

**This is my way of figuring out whether or not he returns! It'll keep going until we have definite confirmation that he's either dead or alive. Until then, read and enjoy!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own either Bleach or Fairy Tail, although I wish I was that lucky. No OC's this time. **

**WARNING: SPOILERS FOR ALL OF BLEACH AND MOST OF FAIRY TAIL! READ AT YOUR DISCRETION...**

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Chapter One: Indefinite

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Grimmjow

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The look in his eyes as I failed to kill him said it all.

Give it up, they said. We can stop fighting, there's no point to this. I'll fight you anytime, but we're done today.

His eyes were asking me to believe him.

They wanted me to trust them.

…They wanted me to trust him.

Please. That was never gonna happen, no chance in Hell. The answer to his plea came to me before I even realized that the plea was directed at me. Even as the unspoken words came through to me, all I heard was gibberish.

No, what I really felt through his eyes was that he wanted me to submit. And that got my blood to boiling. The feral beast inside me was screaming with defiance and fury, and my heart and soul screamed with it.

He wanted me to stop, to submit, to bow? To believe a word he said? To f**king trust!? Well, that wasn't going to happen. Because I am Grimmjow Jaegerjaques, I am the Panther King. I am a hunter, a Hollow of Hueco Mundo. And I don't bow to anyone, and I certainly don't bow to the ginger-headed Soul Reaper who invaded my home and carved a permanent scar across my torso.

Those eyes. They dared defy me. I hated them with an unbelievable fury.

"You...you couldn't defeat me," I said in a rough whisper, my voice scratching against my throat as I staggered a few steps towards him. "Look at you. You're too weak for it!"

...I just didn't get it, I think that was my problem. Forget him—why did I feel so weak at that moment in comparison? I didn't feel like a hunter then, much more like the prey that I had expected him to be. How could that damn Kurosaki stay so calm against me in battle? How could the bastard just give up on a fight like this? What did he have in him that I didn't? What was in those eyes?

My power was gone. It simply melted away then. The feral beast inside had receded from screaming to mewling, pathetic inside. I felt a sense of heaviness settle on my shoulders and push my feet down into the white sands of my home as my hair grew shorter and my features became less and less panther-like. My resurrección melted off of my skin, and something inside me shattered as my zanpakutô reappeared in my hands.

He had broken me out of my strongest state, Pantera's sword release. How?

How?

"I will never lose to you!" I roared, breathless as the reiatsu inside me faded away. Now it was just me fighting, not me and the beast. How had he beaten me?

...No. I was wrong. He hadn't beaten me. I was still alive. A pool of blood may have been forming under me, my spiritual pressure may have been exhausted, but I was still alive. Even though the shit had been beaten out of my body, I, the Sexta Espada of Hueco Mundo, was still alive.

With an enraged cry, I lifted my sword above my head and swung it down towards him, desperate to finish him. Obviously, to anyone who might have seen me then, I looked like a complete mess, with scratches all over my face, rips all over my hakama and jacket. Hell, my normally scruffy blue hair probably looked like a dragon had nested in it. The panther jawbone that was anatomically attached to my own had an ugly scratch in it, right between two of the lower jaw fangs, but the cut had pierced the bone entirely and now my own blood was leaking through the gap.

What I am, I couldn't help thinking, another thing breaking inside me as my blade came down. The stupid ginger broke what I am. I am a Hollow, an Espada. But without a mask, I'm not a Hollow. Without my Hollow hole, I'm not a Hollow. Break my mask and you make me angry.

I threw all my anger, all my strength, all my fear down into Pantera's blade. My strength was Pantera's strength, and his destructive will to fight was my own.

I wanted to kill the Soul Reaper so badly, the malice bled through every pore in my body. The thirst of evil became mine, and I became death incarnate. I became destruction.

In a flash of black, Kurosaki was there. It took me a second to process that he had grabbed my wrist and stayed my blade in coming down. I didn't dare look up into his eyes, because I knew that seeing the revolting compassion in his eyes would just make me fight harder. The most shameful thing a fighter can do is struggle in a useless position.

From the sidelines, I could tell that Orihime Inoue was watching. The human healer who had saved my honor, the human girl whom I had saved. Through her overkill spacial and temporal restoration abilities, she had given me back my rank as Sexta, and I had delivered her to Kurosaki so she could heal him until he was strong enough to fight me.

The way she was looking at me, it was like she expected more of a fight. Two gray doe eyes, warm and caring beyond my capacity to tolerate. It sickened me, her wide-eyed stare. So what if I saved her ass? I didn't owe her any debt, and if she cared at all about me, that was her problem. I didn't save her to have her worry about me—I worry for myself, thank you very much.

"That's enough, Grimmjow," Kurosaki said with a surprisingly condescending tone. "Stop this, now. You say you're a king? Well, if you kill everyone who you don't like, that makes you a king with no subjects."

Damn shinigami. Of course I knew that. What kind of fool did he take me for? I didn't become the sixth strongest Hollow alive by dumb luck. The Sexta Espada is no idiot.

"What's the point in that, Grimmjow? If you truly hate me..." He took a deep rattling breath, but not fearful at all. "I'll fight you anytime. But for now, you need to give up."

We were silent for a moment, me basking in my hatred and letting it consume me, Kurosaki no longer trying hard to keep Pantera from slicing him in two. I hated him. I really hated him. He probably believed he didn't need to block my attack anymore, which only got me madder. And he was even unarmed—he had left his Zangetsu behind when he had confronted me. Insult after insult... By this point, I was a ticking time bomb, ready to blow at any moment.

Then another piece of me broke. Even as he was, he had won. Even so weak and useless, he had won. And I could never forgive him. For a moment, my eyes narrowed, and I looked down at the sand at his feet. And then I almost thought about giving up. I almost thought he was right. I almost gave up.

And then those pieces inside me that I thought broke, they put themselves back together, and the little soul I had inside of me that had been in the process of opening up snapped shut.

And the beast roared one thing.

I am the Panther King.

And I roared with it.

I wrenched my hand from his grip and leaped forward, bringing Pantera back up for a deadly strike. A slightly confused expression was on his face; not surprised, only confused. And just for that, I'd never regret killing him, I knew that. I never regretted killing anybody, no matter their strength or weakness. He may have beaten me down, but he couldn't break me. But I could break him.

"NEVER! I'LL SHOW YOU—"

And that's about when Nnoitra Gilga slashed a hole in my chest.

I'm not gonna lie—it really came out of f**king nowhere. The second the curved blade slammed into my body, I knew I was screwed. My eyes grew wide as moons, the full impact of the blow throwing me out of my leap at a right angle and leaving me with a stupefied expression on my face.

Kurosaki didn't move. Just stared. I think his expression mirrored mine for an instant, confused and shellshocked.

The first thing I saw was my blood. I had almost forgotten that I had that much, but there it was—a sea of crimson splattered against the starless blue sky of Las Noches. Surprisingly beautiful to see, it really was. You should have seen it. Thick red liquid flying into the air and dying my vision in shades of vermillion. Like flicking a paintbrush haphazardly at a canvas without giving a shit about what comes out of it.

At least I couldn't complain about being stabbed in the back, seeing as he did it right in front of me.

And then the reddened sky faded away, and at that moment, all I could see was that piano keys smile of his, grinning down on me like his life depended on it. It's amazing what insanity can do to a guy like Nnoitra, ripping out the soul he may or may not have had. Hell, he probably didn't have a soul even before he became a Hollow. He's Nnoitra, the Espada who killed the former Tercero, Neliel Tu.

I think my eyes almost (and only almost) leaked water for a second as I fell to the ground, an act of total and utter defeat. Even a king knows when to concede.

"You just don't know when to call it quits, do you?" I heard Nnoitra sneer, and then the world faded around the edges. But not enough that I couldn't see his smirk anymore, or the double-bladed axe in his hand shaped like two connected crescent moons with a long chain on the handle. Viscous red blood stained the forward blade. My blood.

"Hurry up and die!" he exclaimed with a wave of the axe. "I want the shinigami for myself."

Kurosaki was so dead it wasn't even funny anymore.

Idiotically, Kurosaki whirled around and stared fiercely at Nnoitra—like that would do him any good. "...What the hell? Who are you?"

No answer as Nnoitra moved forward, a grin on his face.

"Are you an Espada?"

Of course he's an Espada, dumbass. I almost felt sorry for him—the almost was there because I was too busy hating Nnoitra for backstabbing me.

"N-Nnoitra Gilga, you bastard," I whispered hoarsely, the air rushing through my lungs, as I struggled and failed to stand. I felt an immense pressure come down on me as the edges of my vision crept inward.

Nnoitra pursed his lips for a moment—I liked the smile better. "What's this? You're still alive?"

The last thing I saw was Kurosaki lifting his blade up to block Nnoitra's enormous zanpakutô, a surprisingly furious look on his face. Everything about that asshole is surprising.

Then I vaguely heard Nnoitra saying something to me, something that clearly must have been important or insulting, but all I could do was stare off into space.

Somewhere after that, the world went black.

...But after that, nothing else happened. I could move again, could open my eyes, although looking around revealed only darkness. The pain in my chest disappeared instantly, although it took a moment for me to realize it, and the pressure slowly lifted off my chest.

Just when I started to lift the distrusting barrier around me, it happened. The nightmares hit me then, and I couldn't move, frozen in shock. All the dreams I've had, all the times they've been crushed, all the people I've killed—I saw it all over again, from the outside. Saw flashes of blood, screams in the night, fades to black. And the funny thing is, I almost felt twinges of remorse for my actions. Why? Screw remorse. I don't need it.

It got worse then. The nightmares stopped being about others and started to me about me. All those times when someone had proven that I wasn't the strongest, and had taken me down a notch before allowing me back up. Living subjectless in the deserts as an Adhuchas. Fighting every second of every day just to survive for years upon years. Doing the right thing and paying the price. Doing the wrong thing and making the price steeper. Humiliation. Pain. Becoming the Sexta, and only the Sexta Espada, with five others able to prove that they were above me. Kurosaki proving that I wasn't the king.

I saw all my nightmares and fears flashing right in front of my eyes, and in that endless span of time I relived every freaking one if them, unable to mutter a single word.

When I got to the memory of Ulquiorra Cifer stopping me in combat with a blank look on his eerie face and a murderous glow in his feline eyes, my heart shot up into my throat.

As soon as my eyes met his, I remembered to breathe and I shot straight up into the fetal position, gasping for breath. The nightmares gradually faded away, although the revolting discomfort and fear that they had brought lingered.

When I could breathe like a normal person again, I got to my feet. The Cuatro Espada was finally gone, thank God for that. I've always hated Ulquiorra, because he's such an antithesis to me. Yes, I know big words. Don't act so surprised.

The world around me was very, very empty. Obviously, there was some source of light somewhere, because I could clearly see the pale back of my hand and the few blue locks of hair that were floating down into my eyes. My clothes and injuries had been fully repaired, along with my spiritual pressure—but when I ran my fingers over my right cheek, my heart skipped a beat, because the most important part of me was missing.

My mask.

F**k.

This must have been some sort of joke, that was it. Within the past twenty seconds, Aizen or Kaname must have developed senses of humor that didn't result in my pain. But there was pain. Hollow masks weren't supposed to come off, at least not entirely. If my heart was in my throat before, now it was flying figure-eights above my head. There was a strange numbness in my skin, like it had been unexposed for years and the cells were trying to adjust. I felt bare, exposed, without my mask.

"Who the hell did this?" I whispered at first, then repeated it as loud as I could without sounding like a wreck. "WHO THE HELL DID THIS?"

"That would be me."

That voice. I knew that voice. _My_ voice. I whirled around, beady eyes scanning the darkness for any sign of the source.

And then I saw it, just out of the corner of my eyes. It was me, a fuzzy projection in the emptiness, staring back at me with the same expression of lividity and boredom I've always got on, with a little confusion and the slightest amount of fear mixed in.

Me talking to me. Sure, that made sense.

What really got to me was the reflection I saw of myself. I saw how utterly normal I looked without the bone mask, or without the teal tattoos that usually marked the space on the corner of my eyes. I—he—it—looked utterly human, save for the gaping Hollow hole in its abdomen.

Was that really what I looked like now? So...normal...?

Normal wasn't such a bad look on me.

"Relax. It's not the end of the world," he said coldly, as his voice smoothed out to resemble another familiar one, and his form began to change until it was two in one. And then he became a very familiar yet hateful person. "I'm not who you thought I was."

When I realized that I had mistaken orange hair for sky blue and a shinigami's shihakushô for my white hakama and jacket, I almost puked. I had seen myself in him, if even for a moment. Disgusting.

I stared straight into the eyes of the Soul Reaper who had defeated me, broken my mask and my pride, and destroyed who I am, for as long as I could before I felt a strong murderous urge.

"...Kurosaki!" I snarled, and reached for Pantera, only to find emptiness. That was all there was around me—nothing but me and him. I looked around wildly, searching for my zanpakutô and coming up empty-handed.

Ichigo Kurosaki, staring at me in a way that was eerily Ulquiorra-like, replied after a beat. "Uh...no...but I can see how you'd get to that conclusion. By the way, Grimmjow, I guess you noticed that both your mask and Pantera are nowhere to be found."

"I don't give a damn about Pantera!" I yelled, advancing a step forward and holding out my hand to use a Cero blast. "Give me back my mask, right know!"

He raised an eyebrow. "A Cero? That's cute."

"Cute?! Bastard, I'll show you!" I roared, and held my palm out towards him. A red sphere of energy appeared in my hand, and with a yell, the sphere exploded out in a flash of deadly light. The blast slammed into him with expert position, and he met it head on.

Except Kurosaki didn't meet the Cero with fear in his eyes. He met it with a sickly piano-key grin.

...Nnoitra? I blinked my eyes and then looked again, unsure of what I had just seen. It was too late to tell, as a cloud of smoke now surrounded him.

"...Kurosaki, get the hell out here!" I called, gruffly but nervously.

Just when I was about to charge in, a lithe white-clad arm cleaved through the smoke like it was butter, and I heard a new voice. "Who ever said I was Kurosaki?"

Within an instant, Nnoitra Gilga had leapt out of the smoke and pressed the tip of his oversized zanpakutô to my cheek, right where the mask had been.

"W-where in the world did you come from?" I said, my voice barely a whisper. I couldn't move at all, but was it my confusion freezing me, or fear? I didn't want it to be fear.

He greeted my response with another keyboard sneer and the removal of his blade from my flesh, lashing out with his hand to grab my neck. I let out a rasping cough as he lifted me up to his eye level, which was somewhere about a foot above my own.

"Me?" he said. "I came from wherever the hell I wanted. What's it to you?"

"You're...you're choking me," I managed to gasp out.

"What, this? This isn't choking you, Pussycat. This," he said, tightening his grip until I saw stars in the darkness. "This is choking you."

The air. I needed air. I needed it now.

Just as I was about to succumb to unconsciousness, Nnoitra began to change before my very eyes. His black hair grew shorter and messier, his skin faded to pale grey, and his eyes went from sadistic to soulless green pits with trails of green leading down his cheeks from them. The jacket that he had been wearing lengthened into a long robe as its wearer shrunk in size until he was shorter than me and floating in the air.

Ulquiorra Cifer was now holding my throat in his pale thin hand, about an ounce of pressure away from shattering my spine. Something inside me sank down, effectively stilling me from doing anything idiotic on sight of my foremost foe.

"Grimmjow," the Cuatro Espada said, his free hand in his pocket, "upon close examination, it has just occurred to me that you look...different. I suppose it's the mask. Or lack thereof."

First me, then Kurosaki, then Nnoitra, then Ulquiorra. Something was wrong here. Whoever I was looking at now appeared almost exactly as Ulquiorra did, but wasn't Ulquiorra. This being must have been able to change forms at will. Right then, though, he was acting so much like Ulquiorra I figured I should just call him by that name.

I attempted to move my hands to remove his arm from my neck, but one glare from him and I stopped. "Careful, Grimmjow. If I don't like what you're doing, I will snap your spine like a brittle twig. Seeing as you're not dead, I can guarantee it will hurt."

Bastard. I didn't have much strength left—I had already wasted most of it trying to pry Nnoitra's hands away, and Ulquiorra being the Cuatro Espada and stronger than the Quinto, I had no chance of getting him off by strength alone. For god's sake, he was holding me clear of the ground, despite me being clearly taller and heavier.

At least I wasn't dead. That was a relief. If I had died at the hands of a Soul Reaper, I would never forgive myself.

"Ulquiorra," I said, as calmly as I could while choking, "let me go, now, and give me my mask back."

His head cocked to the side as he ever so slightly let go of my windpipe. "What makes you think I have it?"

I didn't respond, just bared my teeth.

After a moment, he closed his eyes and released me, and I crumpled. But not even a second after the air had entered my lungs, Ulquiorra placed both his hands in his pockets and slammed his foot into my ribcage.

I think I flew back when he kicked me—the only reason I think so being that he suddenly shrunk in my field of view and the world spun. Then again, my head was spinning, so anything I say happened then can't really be trusted.

"You'll have to forgive me, Grimmjow," Ulquiorra said as he suddenly appeared a meter away from me. The tiniest fragments of a smile appeared on his face, quite possibly making him the scariest thing I had ever seen. "It's just that I've always wanted to do that, but I've never found the right moment for it."

"You...you piece of crap," I coughed, shifting over to my side so I was now facing him. There was a glimmer in his catlike eyes that seemed almost exaggeratedly sadistic, much more than the Cuatro Espada I knew and hated. Much more than even Nnoitra. I hated this Ulquiorra even more. "You're not Ulquiorra."

"Correct," he said, now actually smiling as he removed his hands from his pockets. So weird, so weird, so wrong.

"What the hell are you, then?"

"First things first." Ulquiorra held up a hand like he was holding something, and I watched in shock as my mask materialized in his pale grasp.

"Ah! My mask! So you did have it, you liar! Give it here," I growled, stepping forward.

"Not quite yet." Just as my fingers reached forward to brush the cool hard bone of my panther jawbone, he began to change shape once again, and grew a few inches taller and out of my reach. His hair grew even shorter and chestnut colored, and the white hakama under his robes darkened to black. The smile on his now-tan face grew wider and less sincere, until I was staring at quite possibly the only person I feared in existence.

Sôsuke Aizen. My hand stopped in its tracks.

Aizen—or not Aizen, it didn't matter, he petrified me plenty anyways—tossed the mask boredly in his hands, and I watched as it went up and down and up and down. "You're not very surprised to see me."

Crap. He was talking to me. I knew it wasn't Aizen, I knew it for sure, but I still couldn't respond without feeling frozen. This was the man who had watched with a smile as his henchman cut off my left arm. This was the man who, when he threatened me, caused me to feel an ache in my bones and a tremor in my hands. This was the only person I simply couldn't hate, because I knew that any outwardly displayed hatred of him would be punished severely. The one man I feared now stood between me and the one thing I wanted.

"Do you still want this mask back?" Aizen asked, catching the bones in his hands one final time. Even though his eyes were normal now, brown with round cold pupils, the sadistic glow was still there in his gaze. "Does it really mean as much to you as you claim?"

Of course it did! What kind of question was that? Even Aizen couldn't scare me into giving a different answer. My mask was part of me, the only thing that distinguished me from a shinigami or a human. I didn't want to be normal. I wanted to be me. "Yes," I responded.

"Prove it." And then he held out his other hand, and in it appeared Pantera, my zanpakutô. "Or not, it's really your choice. I don't care—either Pantera, or your mask. You only get one. Make your choice, then I will explain."

Torn. That's the way to describe it. I was torn between choosing what I wanted and what I'd rather have in a practical situation. What was he expecting me to do? I mean, I know that I didn't care about Pantera before, but seeing my zanpakutô before me now changed that.

Instinctively, my hand almost reached for the hilt in his grasp. I always felt safe with it near me; Pantera was my last resort in a battle and—to be frank—really, really fun to use. Battle wasn't the same with it.

But I wasn't the same without my mask.

And I'd rather be the King with the mask than alive.

I stopped reaching for the blade. Thought about it. Attempted to make a choice.

Almost changed my mind.

But in the end my hand found its way to my mask.

The second my fingers touched the smooth bone, Aizen laughed and drew it away. "Alright, then, it's settled! Mask it is. If you finish what I've planned for you, you get your mask back."

It took me a second to realize what he was saying.

With a sickening smirk, he hoisted Pantera up and tossed it to me. I caught it by instinct alone, before I even realized he had. Also without my noticing, I had slid the sheath partway off of the blade, so I could now see my reflection again. And I saw me, completely me as I usually am, teal tattoos and blue hair and all, but my mask was still gone.

"...You're kidding me," I deadpanned, quietly at first, staring into my own eyes reflected on Pantera's smooth metal blade. Then all my confusion and annoyance and anger and fear with the situation burst out at once, and I was yelling. "That's bullshit! I chose the mask so I can have it now, you unbelievable lying piece of crap!"

I had barely finished speaking when Aizen morphed back into Ulquiorra and gave me a death glare of catastrophic proportions. "What did you call me?" he said icily, quite possibly feeling almost egged on by my actions for the first time in his cold and futile existence.

Good. That made me happy. I wanted to kill him—it—whatever the hell it was—slowly and painfully. I would do it. With my bare hands if necessary. I wanted the mask back, and no amount of strength would keep me away.

Ulquiorra's hand silently shifted to the hilt of his zanpakutô, Murciélago. His eyes were scrunched tightly shut, and he was almost trembling from rage—had I really aggravated him so much? I never would have guessed that he would just snap like that. "Idiot. If I were in your position, I wouldn't make such foolish and unfounded comments. I may be many things—a kidnapper, a murderer, a nihilist—but a liar is not one of them."

"Who gives a shit?! What matters is this—give me back the mask, like you promised! You said I'd get whichever one I chose, and I want it now!" I opened my palm to charge a cero, but before I could he advanced with Murciélago and I had to lift Pantera up to counter him. The impact pushed me backwards, my feet slipping and sliding on nothingness.

"I never said any such thing! Just listen," he growled, eyes narrowing in obvious disgust and annoyance as he pushed me away with Murciélago and lashed out once again. This time I had to brace Pantera with my left hand to deflect the blow.

"The reason I'm withholding your mask from you is this—you just don't deserve it back! Even for you, Grimmjow, you really screwed up this time." A glimmer in his eyes, he pushed down harder, and I struggled to keep standing.

"What do you mean, 'this time'?" I yelled in reply, finally taking the offensive and slamming the hilt down on his hand. At any other time, Ulquiorra wouldn't have reacted; but this time, he winced and leapt out of my range. Just another hint that he wasn't Ulquiorra.

"Don't be an idiot. I mean this life," he said, drawing himself back up to an upright position and shaking out his hand. After a second, he sheathed Murciélago, although his fingers lingered on the blade. "You are aware of the reincarnation cycle of souls, correct?"

"Of course! Who do you think I am?" I growled. I didn't understand the point of the question. It was basic knowledge, something that every being with spiritual pressure was aware of.

Wait. Spiritual pressure. That was it, just another thing that was weird about this Ulquiorra. I couldn't feel his spiritual pressure, not even a little. The suffocating emptiness that was always there was nowhere to be found. The hand that was still grasping at his zanpakutô had no energy, no soul. That was the last bit of proof I needed to tell me that the thing in front of me wasn't who he appeared to be.

Ulquiorra glanced at me once before pointing a pale finger at my face, right between my eyes. "You and I both know that when a human is malicious in life, with unfinished goals at their time of death, they become a Hollow! The fact that you're even here proves you screwed up badly in the time you were human. And now, well, look at you!"

He was right. To be a Hollow, a human soul had to have had unfinished business in the world of the living that consumed them. Every Hollow was born that way. And if the current personalities of the Espada were any indication, the ten of us were seriously messed up.

At least, in the eyes of the rest of the world. I didn't have any problem with who I was. So he was wrong too.

"Not only that." Ulquiorra pinched the bridge of his nose. "The fact that you're even talking to me proves that you messed up in your current life as a Hollow."

A pang of fear seized me when he said the word 'life' so trivially. "But I thought you said that I wasn't dead," I said.

The awkward smile found its way back onto his face. "You're not. You're blissfully unconscious in my domain. Back in Hueco Mundo, Nnoitra Gilga has currently dealt you a critical blow that took out one of the main nerves connected to your spine and carved a large wound across your torso. The wound will probably be fatal if you stay where you are."

"Then why are you keeping me here?"

"It's...interesting to explain. Let me attempt to elaborate on your situation," Ulquiorra said, his form suddenly morphing into that of Gin Ichimaru and taking on the more disturbing look of a murderer and the awkward slurring accent that Gin sported. Strangely enough, though, he wasn't grinning like an idiot anymore. Although his eyes were still closed, his smile looked a bit less creeper-like.

I wasn't fazed by this transformation, not even a little. Out of everyone in Aizen's favor, Gin scared me the least.

"Here's yer dilemma. Yer not in Hueco Mundo anymore. Or in Japan, for that matter. Yer here, and that's all ya get to know."

I struggled to stay patient, more so than usual. "So I'm essentially dead? I keep getting faked out of this answer. Yes or no?"

"...No. But yer no longer alive in the world you once knew." He waited a few seconds to see how I would respond, and his eyes cracked open slightly.

"The gist of the life that yer missing is this—Sôsuke Aizen will be defeated but not killed, Gin Ichimaru will reveal himself as a traitor to the Hollows, Kaname Tôsen will fall in battle, and all the Espada'll die."

"All?"

"Just watch."

He held out a frail hand and a hologram of sorts appeared in it. I counted off out loud as the deaths played through, a projection of the future.

"Primero." Coyote Starrk, no surprise. He was too laid-back to fight seriously.

"Segundo." Barragan Louisenbairn, engulfed in an enormous nuclear explosion. Again, no surprise. He was a wannabe king, not even a little like me.

"Tres." The image was a little shaky, but I was pretty sure that Tier Harribel was being slashed open across the chest by Aizen. That image was slightly less expected, but made up for it with worlds of satisfaction. I had never liked that chick anyway.

"Cuatro." Oh my god, that made me happy. To watch Ulquiorra Cifer simply crumble away into dust, it was amazing. He even seemed to show a little interest in the girl Inoue, who was surprisingly there at his death scene. If I had cared about either of them enough to consider them allies, I would have found the moment stirring. But not me.

Quinto was more fun to watch than say, so I didn't say it. I don't even wanna describe that battle between Nnoitra and the shinigami captain who murdered him. It was expected of a fool like Nnoitra, to die like that.

"Yer enjoying this," Gin commented with a serpentine grin, probably noticing the excited glimmer in my eyes.

"You have no idea."

Thankfully, I didn't see myself get murdered alive for Sexta. But I did see Zommari Rureaux get engulfed alive by these cheesy-looking flower petal-like blades. And I got to say "Septimo" out loud.

"Octavo" was Szayelapporo Grantz, the questionably straight younger brother of one of my Fracciones, Ilfort. He was impaled through the stomach in slow motion and kinda just...stood there and took it. Damn. I guess mad scientists have killer fortitude or something, although the attack obviously killed him.

"Noveno." Aaroniero Aruuerie, stabbed through the head by the tiny Kuchiki brat that I had almost blown the head off of twice. That's just the difference of three Espada ranks for you.

Last was Yammy Llargo, the "Decimo". But he was such a slob and an idiot that I knew it would be boring to watch. "Pah, I don't need to see this."

Gin cleared his throat as the cloud disappeared. "That's not all, Sexta. After the defeat of Aizen, an organization of Quincies will enslave Tier Harribel and capture Hueco Mundo."

Harribel, enslaved by Quincies? But I had just seen her death. She wouldn't survive that attack... Although, she was the Tres.

The confused expression on my face probably proved that I wanted an explanation. "...Perhaps I should clarify." Gin let out a small snicker. "Although it appears that she and ya die, Harribel and ya are the only Espada that survive, although only by sheer luck."

"Why?"

"Because I'm stupid enough to give ya a second chance."

That ticked me off. Who did he think he was? I am the king. You don't screw with the king. Nobody gives me a chance—I make my own destiny.

I advanced towards Gin, who didn't react. "You, give me a chance? What is this, a little book for you? And on another note, WHO IN GOD'S NAME ARE YOU?!"

"Oh, nobody important. I just need some plot twists with popular characters, ya know, so I'm collaborating with Mashima for a little until we decide what happens."

"...Mashima? But that's—"

It clicked.

Kubo. Tite Kubo.

And Hiro Mashima.

The _mangakas_.

I couldn't move, speak, even breathe. He was here. A mangaka. The one who holds all our fates by a thread.

As was appropriate, he chuckled and gave a little sardonic wave.

Kubo smiled as Gin once more, before he melted away and became the darkness surrounding me. "Why'd ya think I could morph into all of ya? I wrote everything you believe in. All of you are part of my imagination, manifested into something much, much more. On that note, ciao, Jaegerjaques!"

And before I could do anything, I felt myself returning back to my body in the real world, and I could feel the pain of a hundred fatal wounds, and the world around me was shifting in and out of colors that I knew and yet had never seen before. The world around me was no longer Hueco Mundo—a new moon was rising in the sky above.

And when the last thing I saw before I blacked out was a complete full moon, which I had never seen before, I almost got a little afraid then.

Almost.

...

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**Well, glad that's out there. Guess where he is. Go ahead, guess! ...Or just read the next chapter when I post and I promise it'll be somewhere within the first five paragraphs. XD**

**Depending on what you, the readers, the FANTASTIC readers, say or comment about this, I may make it a more frequent thing or not so frequent at all. It's all in your hands! I don't have much else to say for this chapter, so...hasta la vista! For now, let's say I'll post the next one in two weeks.**

**Next chapter will feature Laxus Dreyar, the Thunder Dragon Slayer, along with our favorite Titania! See you then!**

**Bai!**


	2. Trespass S-Class

**I may have lied when I said that other chapters will be shorter. Sowwy.**

**So FINALLY I got the title pic up! *pats self on back* I attempted to draw Grimmjow in Fairy Tail style, but the eyes came out so weird I just used the lower halves of the characters only, and now it looks decent. A word to the wise; styluses (I think that's right) for iPads are absolute garbage. I could barely finish Laxus with the one I had. If you actually know anything about decent drawing styluses for iPads, please please please lemme know.**

**Oh yeah, that's right. This is a fanfiction. Well, chapter two is here! I hope you like it. Because I've been writing it nonstop, legit. Please review, all criticism and new ideas are greatly appreciated!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own either Bleach or Fairy Tail, although I wish I was that lucky. No OC's this time.**

**WARNING: SPOILERS FOR ALL OF BLEACH AND MOST OF FAIRY TAIL! READ AT YOUR DISCRETION...**

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Chapter Two: Trespass S-Class

...

* * *

Laxus

...

I'm just not even gonna bother with what happened before he appeared. Let's just say that Fairy Tail members aren't very nice. Then again, I'm not one to judge.

I think it's best to start this story when...he appeared.

Date? Who cares. X7-something or other. I could do the math but I'm not in the mood.

Time? Early evening, I think. It was dark enough to see the moon if you looked outside, which was full tonight. Of course, I was inside, so I was relying on the clock instead of an eyewitness account. But I knew it was full because Gramps was commenting on how nice and peaceful the moon looked. I laughed.

Setting? S-Class floor of the Fairy Tail guild hall, which is right in the center of Magnolia, a city in the country of Fiore, in the world called Earthland. There's an organizational chart for you.

Characters...? Ay. Let's see... There's me, Laxus Dreyar, a Dragon Slayer magician. An orange-eyed blonde—yeah, yeah, make fun and I'll fry you. I've got a nasty scar over my right eye shaped like a lightning bolt. Aptly acquired, I guess. Matches my ability.

Then there's Mirajane Strauss, and I honestly don't care what magic she uses because she hasn't used it publicly in forever. I'm sure I'd have remembered if I wanted to. A white-haired airhead bartender, too nice in my opinion. Maybe if she had a nicer body, I'd care more.

Gramps is another. Makarov Dreyar, my midget of a grandfather and the guild master of Fairy Tail. He kicked my dad, his own son, from the guild. So I hate him. A lot. Nuff said.

...And then there's Erza Scarlet. My hatred for Gramps looks like a love affair in comparison to my relationship with her. I hate her snobby and righteous attitude, she hates my guts, so I guess we could be friends out of mutual disrespect. A redhead who wears armor all the time and uses Requip magic to change her weaponry and armor. Better body than Mira, but still not optimal.

All of the above characters in my story are S-Class. Me, Mira, Erza, and Gramps are all some of Fairy Tail's strongest. I hate 'em all.

I also have the Raijinshuu. I guess calling them my lackeys is generous at best. Evergreen, the one with boobs; Freid, the rune writer and swordsman; and Bixlow, the wtf inducer. I think they care about me a whole lot more than it's returned, but oh well. They're useful, and fairly powerful. Not S-Class, but still.

...There. Pretty sure that's all the people I care about in Fairy Tail. I'll let you know if others pop into my head.

Location of main character? Leaning back against the wall in my chair, feet propped up on the table despite the fact that Mira gets pissed when she has to clean up after me.

Attire? Please. You know you're just wondering about it so you can imagine me taking it off.

...Ah, who am I kidding? I don't mind. Over-the-ears headset with a single silver spike coming out from each side. Leopard print button-down shirt, red dress pants, gray coat with whitish fur lining and draped off my shoulders. Enjoy. But write any lemons and see where that gets you.

Okay. Now that the scene has been established, we can get to the real deal. It went something like this.

One second, I was listening to music with my headphones on. Nothing very interesting, just the classic rock I've always liked since...pretty much always. I was dozing off too, to the point where I almost thought I saw a little blue cat fly up and snatch a poster from the S-Class request board. Might have been real—but then again, might not.

The next moment, an unconscious half-dressed teen with multiple wounds all over his body and a circular gaping hole in his torso appeared at table level and slammed down on the floor with enough force to crack the wood and leave a crater around him.

That one, however, was real.

The noise of the crash even penetrated through my soundproof magic headset, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway if it hadn't. I had been, ironically, staring at the exact spot where he had appeared for the past ten minutes, half-asleep until the crash startled me into realizing what had just happened.

I leapt out of my seat, heart pounding from the surprise, and swore loudly as I took another look at the crater and its occupant. A thick cloud of sawdust had kicked up at the impact, which easily explains why my lungs suddenly felt like sandpaper. "What the hell?!" I said, attempting to hold in a cough and failing.

From downstairs at the bar counter, Mira yelled back to me, more annoyed than anything else. Of course. She couldn't see this. "Laxus, what did you do now—"

"Get up here, now!" I roared in reply.

"What? Why—?"

"And bring the med kit with you!"

That must have scared the crap out of her, along with whoever was downstairs. Usually, when someone gets in my way, you find their semi-conscious body a mile away in a dark alleyway chosen specifically by the Raijinshuu. The fact that I was telling Mira to get a medical supply kit was so unlike me, it probably had her on the verge of hysteria.

She didn't waste a second—within a few moments I already heard her feet pounding on the staircase.

Below me, I could hear other Fairy Tail members—specifically, Erza and Gramps—murmuring about what had just happened, which was kinda stupid seeing as they should have been up on the S-Class floor to see it for themselves.

"Master, are you absolutely sure I shouldn't go up there?"

"...Eh, I'm sure Mira can take care of it."

"But if Laxus—"

"Like I said, I'm sure Mira can take care of it. Explosions happen in Fairy Tail."

"Not where us S-Class wizards are concerned! The S-Class floor shouldn't be demolished, because it symbolizes the strength and power of our guild. A Fairy Tail without a second floor will lose all respect in Magnolia!"

"Pah. We're a guild, not a status symbol. Who needs the floor upstairs when we've got liquor and job requests right down here?"

"Amen!" yelled Cana Alberona heartily, before the clamor of the guild was shut out by the sound of her pouring a full barrel of booze down her throat.

"See, Erza? Cana gets it."

Some guild master Gramps is.

Enough. Forget about them and worry about the guy here. If anything happens up here, no matter what, everyone will think I did it. I had to ignore them and focus on him. I honestly don't know why I felt like I had to help this guy. Something about the fact that he was on the S-Class floor just rang for me. I dunno, I guess it's because I had to fight to get up here, and this guy definitely looked like he did too.

Against all my instincts to shirk off and let Mira take care of everything, I slid off my coat and headphones and worked my way across the floor to him. The floorboards were creaking under my feet; seriously, renovation was needed badly where the guild hall was concerned.

This is not like me. In case you haven't realized yet.

"Cana, I keep a small glass bottle of water behind the bar, next to the rubbing alcohol—Porlyusica treated it with a disinfecting agent for me. You know your way around the bar well; grab it and come upstairs with me," Mira called.

Cana? She wasn't allowed up here. She's failed her S-Class entrance exam too many times to count, one of those being a loss to me. Why was she helping? I mean, no real complaints here-besides the new chick, Lucy, Cana's the best body Fairy Tail's got. But why?

The concept of any type of alcohol was too strong for the drunkard to deny. "Me? Upstairs!? Sure! Gimme a second."

As the two of them gathered supplies, I got as close to the guy as I dared and sat down, staring right at the first thing that caught my eyes. The hole in his chest. That was quite possibly the only part of him that didn't look badly injured. It was a perfect circle, carved all the way through the center of his torso where his stomach should be; but instead of being scarred like the rest of his body there was only shadow on the skin around the hole, and I could see clear through to the wood below. It was eerie to look at.

Behind me, Mira and Cana finished scaling the stairs, Cana taking the lead and getting up behind me while swinging the aforementioned glass bottle in her hands. "Alright, we're here. What exactly—"

Without looking at her, I pointed to the hole in his chest, and the bottle slipped from her hands. A shard of rounded glass sliced past my cheek, just narrowly missing the scar over my eye. "Holy shit, Laxus," she breathed, and took a step back, her flip-flops crunching on broken glass. "What the f**k did you do?"

"I didn't do anything," I snapped, wiping the blood away with the back of my hand.

That was about the same moment that Mira's eyes fell on him. She shrieked and put a hand over her mouth when she saw the hole, but after a moment she got over it and kneeled down on his right side, opening the small kit next to her. "Cana," she said firmly, "there's another bottle in the cabinet next to the request board, larger than the one before. It's locked. The key is under the flowerpot on the terrace."

"That's it!" Erza declared, the sound of clanking armor finally nearing the stairwell. "I'm going up, Master!"

"Erza, wait!"

Mira ran over to the bathroom and filled up a wooden basin half-full with water from the tap.

Cana said nothing. She was frozen, trembling. So I looked over my shoulder and locked eyes with her. "What are you staring at? He's gonna have more than a hole in his stomach if we don't do anything."

She pointed a trembling finger at me. A threat. "He's just a kid! Laxus, you don't ever hurt a non-aggressor on Fairy Tail grounds. If he had a gun to your head, well, I can understand this. But if he didn't do anything to harm you..."

Cana left the words hanging in the air and stormed to the terrace to fetch the keys. I decided that she wasn't even worth my attention right now and looked back at the guy as Mira searched the kit for a clean cloth.

"Laxus, even for you," Mira said, dragging the basin closer, "this is excessive."

"I keep telling you, I didn't do this! He just—"

I was cut off by yet another accuser, Erza, who had finally made it up here and had her sword pointed at my head. "Just what?" she demanded, casting a glance at him and then turning her gaze back to me. "He just appeared?!"

"YES!"

Cana returned from the terrace and, since storming out would have been bad conduct, stormed up to the cabinet with the bottle and started to open the lock. "Laxus, you sick bastard—"

"BEFORE ANY MORE OF YOU SAY A GODDAMN THING," Mira suddenly roared, surprising me and freaking us all out, "LET'S HEAR WHAT HE HAS TO SAY!"

Ah, that's right. See, I knew I'd remember. She uses Satan Soul magic. Take a guess what it does.

A flustered Erza walked to the railing overlooking the lobby floor and braced herself on the wooden beam. "Fine. I guess we're being a little judgmental."

"A little?!"

"Yes. We're talking about you. Remember?"

She couldn't be serious. It was hard to reign in my annoyance with her as I appealed my position. "Look. I was just sitting here and listening to my music, and he literally just appeared right in front of me. No joke."

"Understand that that's really hard for us to believe, Laxus," Cana snapped. Mira shook her head, and at last Cana calmed down.

Erza took a deep breath and said, "It's truly a pity we don't have any healers in the guild. Ah well. I can't help when I'm wearing this armor." Within an instant, she had requipped her armor into a white blouse with a bow around the neck and a blue skirt. "How is he?"

"Don't ask me," Mira replied nervously.

Besides the hole, he was in very, very bad shape, which was saying something. Mainly, three long slashes were cut across his chest—the largest one looping around the left side of his neck and down to the hole. Jeez, what crackpot weapon gave him that? Not even counting those, though, he was covered in fairly-serious scratches and bruises from head to toe. Thick crimson blood was dripping down his sides and through the hole to color the wood below him, which I had to admit was pretty graphic even for our standards.

Was he dead? Hope not—something told me that Mira and the others would blame me for it, since I was always upstairs when nobody else was and speaking softly isn't my forte. Hell, Cana and Erza already did.

Turns out I was wrong the first time I saw him. He actually appeared to be older than a teen, but not by much. Maybe a year younger than me at best, probably twenty or so. That warranted calling him a kid in my book... I am saying this as a guy, so don't take this wrong—for a kid in his early twenties, he had a killer physique. I didn't even know someone so young could have that many muscles and yet still be so slim. He was surprisingly pale, probably owed to his comatose state, with a jumble of light blue hair that looked too natural on him to be dyed. Similarly colored tattoos were under his eyes, which were scrunched so tight that I think it'd be a miracle if they ever opened. His hands were clenched but not closed, like he was about to claw someone's eyes out. A ripped white jacket that didn't extend down to his hole was on him, with the collar and sleeves turned out to reveal the black inside. His pants were long and flowy, and were white and in tatters like the jacket. One of his feet was bare; the other one had a black boot-like shoe with white markings on it. All of his clothing was ripped extensively, as if he had been fighting off a wild tiger barehanded.

Oh, and get this. A sword was slid through his belt. A simple katana with a light blue sheath and a handle wrapped with deep blue cloth. What was a kid like this doing with a weapon?

For once, Erza had the same opinion as I did. Erza kneeled down next to Mira and motioned for Cana to sit next to me. "Mira, I'm going to take his weapon in case he's hostile."

A nod from Mira. Erza reached over the kid's mangled body and slid the sheath and blade out through his belt, running her fingers over the hilt. "How the hell did he get a weapon like this?"

"What's so surprising?" I asked.

"It's a high quality authentic katana, better than even mine. And there's a strange engraving on the sheath..." She narrowed her eyes, but after a few seconds she gave up and requipped the blade into the dimension where she kept all her armor and weapons. "But I can't read it. I'll ask Levy to decipher it later."

"Cana, give me the bottle." Mira held out one hand and held in her other a clean towel. "If I don't clean his wounds, he could die."

"We don't even know if he's alive," I said. How had the rest of them overlooked this?

"Look at his chest," she said. "It's moving, just barely. He's unconscious, almost dead, but not quite. Cana, the bottle."

Cana nodded and handed her the treated water, which she poured into the basin with a tense breath. A moment later, she dipped the end of the towel into the water and wrung out as much as she could.

"Erza, tell Master to contact Porlyusica and see if she's willing to come. I'm not experienced with fatal injuries like this."

"Got it." Erza leapt over the railing down to the lobby floor and began to negotiate with Gramps.

"Alright. Cana, Laxus; I need you guys to stay here, in case he wakes up. Because this is really gonna hurt."

Cana scooted around so she was next to Mira and across from me. "If he attacks, what do we do?"

"Hold him down tighter."

Erza called up to us, "We can't reach her! She must be out."

Cana and I exchanged a glance. "This is a bad idea."

"It's this or he dies before we can get him to Porlyusica." And with that she lowered the towel and started cleaning out the largest of the wounds on his chest.

The effect was instantaneous. The second the rag came into contact with his skin, his eyes shot open, and he let out a horrible pained scream. His whole body arched violently upwards, and his hands clenched even tighter as he began to struggle against Mira.

"Cana, Laxus, now!"

I grabbed his left arm and pushed down, hard enough to move the splintered floorboard beneath him, while Cana grabbed his right arm in one hand and laced her free hand with his and squeezed.

I raised an eyebrow.

If she noticed, she didn't say anything. "Come on, man," she said, his fingers squeezing hers tightly as he screamed again and shut his eyes. This time, it was a little quieter, but he was struggling harder now, gaining strength back. It was difficult to hold him down now, really difficult, without hurting him. "Hang in there."

"Shouldn't we be doing this somewhere a little more sanitary?" I asked, noticing that as of this moment we were practically sitting on broken glass and splinters.

"You want to move him?" Mira asked, her eyes locking with mine. God, her eyes scared me. When was the last time she had given me that look?

A sweatdrop rolled down my cheek, and I shook my head.

The kid let out another cry and turned over on one side, towards Cana. And then, finally, he yelled something. "Stop!"

"Hey, he can talk," Mira gritted, wringing out the towel into a basin that was by her side and returning to her healing. The water that came out was a bright liquidy red. "That means he's conscious. That's an improvement."

"Sorry," Cana apologized firmly, the arm restraining him not letting up in the slightest. Her hand holding his didn't move either. "You just need to bear with us."

When he cried out again, Mira shook her head. "This isn't really working. It's probably hurting more than helping—I'm going to leave that one alone for a little."

Mira moved away from the worst of his cuts and to one of the less life-threatening ones, and immediately he started showing little signs of improvement. His ragged breathing slowed and steadied a little bit, and he stopped struggling quite so hard. His body was still trembling though, sweat dripping down his face and neck.

His grip on Cana's hand released slightly, earning a strained smile from the sultry wizard. "There. I told you to hang in there."

Slowly, really slowly, he cracked one eye open, gritting his teeth. The edges of his canines were jagged, like a panther's fangs. Disturbing. His eyes were a deep blue, yet another addition to his addiction to the monochromatic.

"Ggh...Where...is this...?" he rasped, his weakness and exhaustion clearly showing.

I was about to speak, but Cana beat me to it. I suppose it was a good thing though—like I said, I tend not to speak softly.

"You're in the Fairy Tail guild hall. You're safe, but you're wounded, badly. We're attempting to treat you."

"Fairy...Tail?" His eyes narrowed again, but from confusion instead of pain. "What a stupid name."

"Then ignore the name and lie still," Mira commented snappily. I think she purposely moved to another one of the worse cuts then, and he let out a pained cry.

"Stop that! I don't...need...your pity." With a grunt, he tried to stand, but without trying Cana and I were able to hold him down.

"Yes, you do. Let us help." Cana leaned out over him a little further.

"I told you...I don't—argh!"

All of a sudden, he winced and cried out again. That just happed to coincide with the fact that the ends of Mira's hair had fallen out of their tie and brushed over one of his serious wounds a little more than gently. "Would you stop that?!"

"Sorry, sorry," Mira mumbled blankly, moving to another cut and fixing her hair with her free hand.

"She did that on purpose," he said with an agonized hiss.

"Mm."

"Mira, stop being a jerk. It's a name. If he was insulting the guild itself, that'd be different. What's you're name, kid?" said Cana.

"...Kid...?"

"And why is there a hole in your chest?" I added.

He shuddered as Mira moved to another one of the more serious cuts and let out a strained groan. The look in his eyes clearly portrayed his unwillingness to answer. "Nrgh... Why should I tell you—"

"Okay, I have to move the cloth to one of the worse cuts now," Mira said softly. "It's gonna hurt, a lot. More than before. A lot more."

"Shit." His eyes narrowed.

"That's about right," Mira agreed with a solemn tone. "Cana, Laxus?"

"It's not like I've moved or anything," I deadpanned.

"Sorry," Cana apologized again.

"...The name," he started, meeting Cana's gaze with that narrow glare. "It's—"

Mira pressed the towel against the side of his neck.

One can only imagine what he was going to say. Any sound he was about to make was cut off by a strangled gasp, and after a moment, he cried out again and thrashed violently. I almost fell on top of him, he tugged against me so hard. Where the hell did all that newfound strength come from?!

Mira yelped and jumped away as his shoulder managed to worm its way out of my grip and almost bashed into her arm. The speed at which he had moved startled even me, but within another second I had gotten over it and grabbed his shoulder once again.

During his struggle, one of his feet came into contact with the ground, and the resulting impact created a crater as large as the one he was in. A sweatdrop slid down Mirajane's cheek as she called, "Holy shit. Erza, we need some help! And get the rest out of the building!"

"They're on their way out!" Like wildfire Erza came roaring up the stairs and practically slid across the ground to us, grabbing a leg in each hand and holding him down as best as she could. "Damn, he's strong!"

"St-stop it!" he yelled, his eyes wide and darting back and forth from me to Erza, then to Cana, then to Mira's hand on his skin, then back to me. And then his eyes locked on mine and lingered there, for just an instant longer than the others, and he closed them and bared his canines again. "...I said..."

"Mira!" I yelled. "Get back!"

Her head cocked to the side for an instant, proof of her unsuspecting innocence.

"Get OFF!"

And then he lashed out, and somehow ripped himself from my iron grip and sat up, and in a perfectly calculated move the back of his hand connected with Mira's head.

"MIRAJANE!" I roared.

Mira gave off a horrible cry as she shot back and crashed into the wall, her body as lifeless and still as a broken ragdoll. It wasn't like what you see in the movies, where a person gets up immediately after an attack like that-one of her arms was twisted at a weird angle, and her eyes were open from pure shock and horror. It was so impossibly real. So real. A thin trail of blood was leaking from her head, dying a streak of her hair a deep scarlet. And she wasn't moving.

But he wasn't even done. Twisting his body towards me, he tore his foot from Erza's restraints and slammed it into the side Cana's abdomen. She let out a strained gasp as he ripped his hand from her grip and tossed her aside like nothing.

Erza thought fast and requipped her standard blade and armor back into existence, just in time to block the rebound of his kick. Then, right when she was about to block, a glowing red light came from the sole of his shoe, and he swerved his foot around to face the residents of the first floor.

Before I could do anything, she leapt in between him and the rest of the guild, and took the entire brunt of the explosion herself.

"Aah!..." In that instant, blocking the explosion of energy with just her blade and body, I realized how overpowered she was. A surprised Erza couldn't protect the others alone.

When the smoke faded, the first floor was safe. But Erza was dangling over the edge of the S-Class floor, a single hand holding onto the already creaking wood tiles. Her armor and sword had turned back into her blouse and skirt, and burn marks were scattered all over her body. Right now, she was struggling just to pull herself back up.

Panting heavily as he pulled himself to his knees, the kid turned toward me and growled. "What part of 'get off' didn't you understand?"

That was the last straw. You don't hurt a member of Fairy Tail on my watch, and you definitely don't hurt three of them if I'm anywhere nearby. My anger with him blinded me, I could barely see anymore. No, all I saw was Mirajane flying back into the wall, and all I could hear was Cana's cry of pained surprise, all I could feel was Erza's gaze drilling into me, practically begging me to do something. And just because I hated all of them didn't mean that I would enjoy seeing guild members hurt by an outsider.

Outsider. Newcomer. Whatever. I hated him. Any connection I might have felt to him at the start was officially severed. It's not like I didn't feel a tiny bit similar, like I wouldn't hurt a woman. But hurting someone in battle and hurting three women who're trying to help you stay alive are two very different things.

Instinct got the better of me. I grabbed his left shoulder tightly and unleashed ten thousand volts of electricity into his body and kept going.

I have to give him credit as a living being—he didn't even scream. He just closed his eyes and took it with a shudder, his teeth still gritted.

The requip mage pulled herself back up just in time to see it. "What the hell! LAXUS!" cried an absolutely enraged Erza, who charged me from the front and requipped her blade.

That piece-of-crap little kid! Who did he think he was?! I was gonna teach him a lesson, and teach him good. The lightning magic was swirling around the two of us, exhilarating me and fueling my anger and hatred.

I raised my hand to her feet and let loose another bolt of lightning, still discharging my max capacity into him. A warning shot. "Don't get any closer, Titania, or I'll zap your head off!"

"You idiot! He thought it was self-defense!"

"Bullshit! You call that magic he aimed downstairs self defense?!"

"That wasn't magic!"

"Wasn't it? He was baiting you, Erza! He knew that someone here would risk their lives to protect the others!"

"Laxus, stop!" Cana cried, clutching the bare side of her chest.

"I will when he gets the message!" I answered with a yell, fuming. The entire S-Class floor was aglow with bright yellow lightning, the majority of which was coming from my hand and flowing into his bones. "The second he gives up, I stop!"

"You'll kill him!"

"Good! That's what I f**king want!"

The light from my magic illuminated Cana's hand, where he had been holding it, and I realized that her fingers were bruised and red from how tightly he had gripped them. That just made me madder.

"This is what you get when you hurt Fairy Tail, you bastard," I whispered roughly, searching his eyes for any sign of backing down.

"L-Laxus," Mira breathed, pained as she struggled to a sitting position, "stop this, please..."

And then, to quite a shock, the kid turned back to me and said, "...No. Let's see...if you can...do it."

Those eyes. That gaze.

I hated those goddamn eyes of his!

"Think I can't?" I whispered again, and doubled the dosage, using both hands at this point. He let out another strangled gasp but just barely stood his ground, attempting to stare me down and failing.

"Laxus, that is enough!" In a desperate attempt to stop me, Erza hurled her sword at my head. And as powerful as I am, swords still present a danger to my mortality. I stopped the lightning flowing and leaped out of the way as she pulled herself to her feet, but I wasn't fast enough to dodge the solid right hook she aimed at my chin.

I stumbled back a few steps, catching myself on the edge of the table. Erza, that bitch, now stood between me and the kid. He was on his hands and knees behind her, panting and coughing heavily and not daring to look me in the eye.

I didn't care, though. He had given up, at least in my eyes. The fact that he refused to look at me came across to me as a concession. But I still wanted to kill him.

Erza must have seen that murderous expression of mine, and acted quickly. Before I could do anything rash, Erza took the towel from the basin and pressed it lightly to the cut on my cheek. But it didn't matter how hard she pressed it—as soon as it touched my skin I thought someone had stabbed me with a foot-long iron knitting needle in the skull.

"Ahh!" I shoved her hand away, but it was too late to turn away from those angry little eyes of hers. They locked onto mine, and I was stuck. "You got a problem, Titania?"

"That was to a tiny glass cut on your cheek. We basically dumped a gallon of it onto his centimeter-deep body length wounds. Would you just sit still and let us put that much on you?" she asked.

Why should I answer when we all knew what I would say? I stayed silent and broke away from her gaze. There was no need to voice my doubt against her—she already knew it was there.

"Stop being a murderous bitch, Laxus." Erza retrieved her sword from in front of me and held it out to the side, where it dwindled into nothingness. Then the sheathed katana of his appeared in its place.

Me? She's calling me this. Hilarious to boot.

Kneeling down a few feet away from him, she held out the blade and said, "I think this is yours, kid."

He pulled his legs out from under him and leaned back, glancing at her once. Waited a few moments. Then, to my surprise, he reached out and snatched the weapon from her grip, clenching his hand tightly around it.

I watched without a sound as Cana got to her feet and helped Mira stand. And neither one of them looked me in the eye either as they walked to Erza's side.

So I returned to my chair, put my coat back over my shoulders with a shrug, and placed my headphones around my neck. And I watched as the three girls attempted to help him some more.

For the first fifteen minutes or so after he calmed down, he was completely uncooperative with the trio. He absolutely refused to let Mira even get near him with the towel, and eventually she gave up. He sat curled up in a corner of the room, his head between his knees, growling at the four of us in turn and mumbling the same words over and over to himself. Like a broken record—"The Kubo. The f**king Kubo. Working with Mashima, that..." And on and on he went. Dementia. When he wasn't mumbling, he was coughing into his hand, or squeezing the wounds on his shoulder and letting the redness slip through his fingers.

Who the hell was this Kubo, anyway? Sounded familiar. Mashima, even more so. But if anyone else recognized it, they didn't say. I didn't care much.

Cana seemed especially wary of him, and didn't say a word nor approach him. I stayed at the table somewhere around three meters from him, safe enough that I could electrocute him again before he could pull anything. And I tried to size him up. What was his deal? Despite the guild's weirdness, people don't just appear in Fairy Tail, and they definitely don't appear on the guild's S-Class floor. Why the hell would he be here, up where only a fraction of the members are allowed?

Well, there was one indication, besides his attack on the girls, which like idiots they seemed to have forgiven him for. I still hadn't. Erza, at some point during his mumbling, tried to approach him more closely than the others.

"Hey, are you okay?"

The second she laid a hand on his shoulder, well, things got interesting. Before any of us realized, he had taken up the katana of his from before, held it up to Erza's neck, wrapped his free hand around her hair, and whispered roughly, "Leave me alone."

She had slowly and nonchalantly backed away, fixing her hair once she was a safe distance behind me. And despite the completely inappropriate situation to find anything funny, I had laughed, really hard—how could I possibly not find that hilarious? I had been longing to see that for so long now. Somebody had held a sword to the great swordswoman Titania Erza's throat. The great and powerful Erza had been bested by a mental patient with a sharp piece of metal and a hole in his chest. It didn't even matter how pissed I was with him; I've wanted to see Erza bested for such a long time.

"Ahahahaha! Fantastic work, Erza. You're a real big girl."

"...Blondie. You got a problem?" the kid grumbled.

Blondie. A tick mark formed on my forehead—I thought I said that I don't like being made fun of. Instantly I remembered how furious I was with him, and the smile melted from my face. "Depends. If I've got a problem, what does that make you?"

The contact seemed like enough to snap him out of his dementia. His eyes met mine and narrowed. Hatred. Not even an ounce of thankfulness for saving his pathetic life. Although...I guess we had strayed from the "save him" path somewhere along the line.

He squeezed his shoulder where I had electrocuted him even tighter, and when his fingers moved I could see a jagged burn mark forming beneath them. "What kind of asshole electrocutes a half-dead guy?"

"What kind of jackass hits a woman?" I retorted, moving out of my seat and standing up, menace in every word.

"...Tch. They weren't trying to block. Their fault."

"They wouldn't have needed to block if you hadn't attacked them in the first place."

"I don't like pain," he hissed, before letting out a groan of—lo and behold—pain. His hands came away from his wounds red and bloodied, and already I could see his eyes were distant and cloudy. "Sh-shit..." he whispered, but he was already falling as he spoke.

As he slumped forward, he turned a little to the side so I could see his back, and I noticed a large black six tattooed onto the right side of his hole.

I think Erza noticed it at the same time as me, but didn't say anything. Instead, she motioned to Cana, who wordlessly moved closer to the once-again unconscious kid and put his right arm around her shoulders. Erza took his left side, and together the two of them managed to carry him to the chair across from me at the table and put him down.

Even in a comatose state, he still looked so disturbing and violent, like when he had fought us before. I put my feet up on the table in a way that blocked him from my view. "Well, he's dead. Can we go now?"

Erza took another look at his wounds and said, "We need to get him to Natsu."

That was a surprise. Of all the people to fix a guy with a hole in his chest, the volatile Fire Dragon Slayer certainly didn't come to mind. From the look on Cana's face, she felt the same.

"Why?" I deigned to ask.

"Think. Porlyusica can't be reached. None of us can heal, and at this time of night no doctors in Magnolia will be open. But Natsu has a fire ability. He can, at the very least, cauterize the wounds until the kid can fully recover."

"Pfft." I chuckled at that. So stupid, it might actually work. "Hey, have fun on your little dragon-hunting escapade, Titania."

It was somewhere at this point that Mirajane, who had been silent this entire time, suddenly realized that a poster was missing from the S-Class job request board.

Immediately, her gaze shifted to me. "The Cursed Island request is missing, Laxus," she said, a nervous yet serious tone in her voice.

I slowly followed her line of sight, and so did Cana and Erza, to see exactly what she had described-an empty gap between the already scattered high level requests.

"Laxus. Who took a poster from the board?"

Now that I thought about it, I had been too awake for that image of a flying blue cat to have been a dream. Happy, Natsu's best friend, had taken it, I was sure.

Well. Tonight just got a whole lot better.

"Laxus," Cana said softly. But the anger portrayed in that word was enough to get me to answer.

"Hey, look," I said uncaringly, "all I saw was a blue cat with wings—"

"You saw Happy and you didn't stop him?!" shrilled Mira.

"All I saw," I repeated, "was a blue cat with wings fly up and snatch a piece of paper off the board. How was I supposed to know it was him?"

"You know any other flying cats?" Erza said.

Troubled, Cana walked to the railing and scouted out the lobby floor, which had filled up once more with Fairy Tail members who had already forgotten that their lives had been in danger. Idiots. Scanning the members, she eventually said, "Natsu's not down there, and neither is Happy."

Called it.

Mira let out a shriek and ran downstairs to tell Gramps, almost tripping over her long red dress as she did so. "Master! Master! Natsu stole an S-Class quest!"

"Whaaaaaa?!" roared Gramps.

I put on my headphones then and drowned them all out, humming to myself as Erza and Cana began to talk, and I moved my foot so I could just barely see him. And I couldn't stop wondering what that six on his back stood for. Six murders? Six years? A name? One of six? Or something more?

"I'm calling him Six from now on," I said suddenly.

If Six disagreed, he didn't say a thing.

"Why not? We need something besides 'kid' to call him anyway." Erza shrugged.

At this point, Mira came back upstairs and said airily, "We heard that the duo was gonna ask Lucy to come on the quest, so Master sent Gray Fullbuster to get them."

Gray, the Ice-Make Magic user. Chasing after a Fire Dragon Slayer. Well, wasn't that likely to blow up in our faces.

All the color drained from Erza's face as she pieced together what I'd already realized. "Oh boy. I'll go after them," she said as her outfit requipped back into her normal Heart Kreuz armor and skirt. "And while I'm at it, I may as well take Six, and kill two birds with one stone."

"Six?" Mira asked, then fell silent as she caught sight of the tattoo. "Oh."

"Have fun," I quipped.

Erza said nothing, just gave me a death glare as she walked to Six's side and hoisted him onto her shoulders with Mira's help.

"Got him?"

"No worries, Mira." Once the two were at the stairs, Mira let Erza take the entire weight of Six, which wasn't very difficult for her to handle, and began walking down the stairs.

"Is this going to work?" Mira murmured, her eyes following the duo down the stairs.

Hope not.

Then to my surprise, the sullen Cana said, "Of course it's gonna work. Erza's smart, she wouldn't do something like that if it wouldn't do any good." The tone of voice she used made it seem like she was trying to convince herself.

Mira nodded and started to pack up the first aid kit, following Erza downstairs once she was finished.

Cana sighed deeply and grabbed a stray bottle of beer that was on the table next to mine, flipping the top off with a wince as her wounded hand felt the strain, and then downed the whole thing before she was halfway back to the bar.

"Oi, Erza, who's that?" called Gramps nervously.

"Six. That's what we're calling him."

"...How...?"

"I'll explain later, Master. When we're back, I'll make him tell me what he's doing here."

And as Erza and Six exited out the front door into the city of Magnolia, I blasted the volume as high as it could go and went about as if nothing had happened.

...

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**Heyo! Oh wow, I say that so much it was instantly added to autocorrect. SUCCESS.**

**I really, really, REALLY apologize for screwing with Grimmjow's tough bravado here; but to be fair, the wounds he sustained from Nnoitra and Ichigo would kill anybody else. I think he has the right to lose the hierro for a bit.**

**Judging from what I've seen so far, I've officially decided that this will be posted every other week now, alternating with AFLCH. On a side note for future chapters, I would like to ask the readers a favor. I was thinking of having Grimmjow develop a Segunda Etapa, just like Ulquiorra did. Unfortunately, I'm all out of ideas in that sense. So if you have one, lemme know in as much detail as possible and if I use it I'll give the credit to you for it.**

**Next chapter! Grimmjow and Erza find themselves on their way to Galuna Island, one searching for renegade wizards, and one with no idea what the hell he's doing there. See you then!**

**p.s. OMG RUKIAS HAKKA NO TOGAME IF YOURE READING THIS FOR BLEACH THEN READ CHAPTER 570 OHHHHH MYYYYYYY GODDDDDDDDDDD FINALLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!**


	3. A Moon Bleeding Malice

**Erm...fixing some grammars. Yeah. Sorry.**

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**Heyo! So...over 1000 TOTAL READS and 20 TOTAL FAVORITES! Thank you all so very much! I feel really, really loved...**

**Let me clear something up first before I start this chapter. The way I see Grimmjow is this: Grimmjow Jaegerjaques is a young Hollow appearing roughly twenty and a little bit of a heartless psychopath. Since I highly doubt he has morals, I assume he drinks fairly frequently and on rare occasion uses drugs. Because, come on. It's Grimmjow. He's not exactly above that stuff.**

**Response to reviews? Only one this time, since my answer is pretty generic.**

**nopearltea: Yes, this will be Grimmjow x Cana, because I just felt that I needed to ship him with someone desperately. This will also be slightly GrimmTier, but only slightly.**

**And speaking of GrimmTier. To everyone here—this story will not be like "Cure to Emptiness", which is an amazing fic, or "The Nihilistic Fairy", also amazing. Why? Because I plan on having all the Espada coming in at one time or another, mainly Grimmjow and Tier. And Grimmjow will not find it nearly as easy to join Fairy Tail as Ulquiorra would.****  
**

**Also, another general note. I know that posting only every other week is annoying. But if I don't set things up ****like that, I'll end up disappointing you by being late because I am a very busy girl. So please! Bear with da Junei.**

**On to the chapter! I really had fun messing with Erza and Grimmjow here, mainly Grimmy. To be clear, this doesn't ship them. Not purposely, anyway. Enjoy!**

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Chapter Three: A Moon Bleeding Malice

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Grimmjow

...

I woke up in another middle of nowhere with the full moon still shining high in the sky.

The first thing that I heard was water, a lot of it. The scent of salt was tangy in the air, almost suffocating. I had never been near this much water before, never in my life, and for good reasons. I hate water, a lot. I mean, come on, seriously. Pantera. A cat. There's a reason Hueco Mundo doesn't have water. Do you know what I'd do if Aizen put a lake in Las Noches?

Oh god. Everything ached, so much, every fiber, every bone. My mind flashed back to what must have been hours ago, when I had woken up with a searing pain in every part of my body.

The first words that came to me, I said them, and I was surprised with my brain's choice.

"What happens...when I mess with...Fairy...Tail?"

I remembered them suddenly. Those words, they were a name for a group. A group that I must have accidentally infiltrated. And the four who had done...something... I must have been talking to members. And I didn't know what they had done to me, but it sure as hell had hurt. The redhead who had given me back Pantera after I woke up. The girl with the white hair who had been using that burning towel on me. That blonde bastard who had electrocuted me with...whatever it was he had used. And that girl who had held my hand.

My eyes closed at the thought. Why had she done it? I sure as hell couldn't tell why. I wasn't sure if it made me sick, or slightly less sick, or...just something else altogether.

But I did know one thing—

Nobody had ever done something like that for me.

And rather than feeling grateful, it confused the shit out of me that she had.

Well, now I could blame her for the headache.

I tried to think through the fog coating my mind, wracking my brain for something to identify them by; but seeing as my vision was still blurred and I could barely keep my eyes open, I started slow. The blonde, the one with the lightning bolt scar—the three girls had been screaming his name when he had attacked me. Something with an L. Laxus. I immediately took an intense dislike to him, the kind I save for the people on my hit list.

Mira. No, Mirajane. Laxus had yelled something to the white-haired one after I had attacked her. That must have been her name. She had looked so weak from the first glance, but I had felt this devilish aura around her at one point, one that almost scared me. When I had hit her, though, she didn't seem all that powerful.

The redhead...I think... Come on. She had been strong, so I should have at least learned her name. But no. I couldn't remember hers. And upon further raking the muck out of my head, I couldn't remember the name of the other one either. Shit.

I was still a little asleep, kinda dazed, but at least I was alert enough to realize where I was. The wooden planks below me were dark and weather-worn, and the surface under me was swaying softly in time with the water sounds. A boat, that must be it. I'd never been on a boat before. The thought that I might be on a piece of creaking timber surrounded on all sides by an endless expanse of saltwater only added to my nausea.

This would probably be a bad time to admit to being just the tiniest bit claustrophobic, wouldn't it?

Altogether, the boat had an eerie feel to it. There was little to no sound, save for the flickering of a small lantern dangling on one of the boat's walls opposite me. And the sea. Well, at this point, I was attempting to drown it out. But nobody else was on the boat that I could see. I was on the top deck, which explained why it was so damn cold. A thick tree-trunk mast was ahead of me in the center of the boat, with a large white sail attached to the top. Just above that sail was a small black flag, a flag with a skull and crossbones on it.

Pirates. Of all the f**king ships to wake up on, it just had to be a pirate ship, didn't it. F**k my life. Right now.

A loud crashing wave slammed into the side of the boat, scaring the crap out of me. If I had had the strength in me to jump, I would have.

My back felt really stiff, like I had been there for a while. A few hours or so, maybe more. Someone had propped me up in a corner against a sort of wooden step, so I was still lying down but half sitting. A rough beige blanket had been placed on me, the slightest tinges of red seeping through. I guess I had more or less lost as much blood as I could and still be conscious, because the wounds weren't bleeding anymore.

The pain and cold and uncomfortable isolation motivated me to test my ability to move. I could just barely shift to a position that was more sitting than lying down, and I drew the blanket around me tighter as another wind chill tore into my bones. Every little movement was so painful, like holding every nerve ending over a bunsen burner. Why was everything so painful?!

Oh, that's right. I remembered. Again. I had almost died. In fact, I was supposed to be dead right now. I should have been dead. If my hierro had been pierced by the wounds, they should have killed me.

So why was I alive?

...Did whatever those four did have something to do with it?

No. That was stupid. Nobody in their right mind would heal the Sexta Espada.

But then again...

Alright, that was it. Time for a reality check. I needed to prove to myself that this wasn't just an unintentional acid trip from something screwy in Aizen's crappy tea—in which case I'd really be in trouble. So I lifted my hands and pointed with my right at the back of my left. "Cero," I whispered, and a bright red beam of spirit energy seared a burning raw mark on my knuckles.

I let out a surprised yelp of pain before I could hold it in, sucking in the air through my teeth. Not the tea then. I could feel pain perfectly fine, which was alway a good indication of life. I was perfectly alive and well, although my condition was questionable.  
Kubo had been serious about f**king with me.

Just fantastic.

...Strange, though. My cero was mostly absorbed by the remaining fragments of my hierro from battle, but for some reason it had been stronger than I expected, like the level of Ulquiorra's cero, which came as a shock. How the hell had my power taken such an upgrade without me doing anything different?

At least I could still use my spirit energy—that came as a huge relief. By this time I was completely awake, thanks to my self-cero failure. I could hear two voices—one gruff and indistinguishable, one feminine and strangely familiar. And without realizing it, I let out a relieved breath now that I knew I wasn't alone. I could just barely see the silhouettes of the two of them, but the large single mast of the ship was hiding them from my view. When the girl turned, I saw a lock of scarlet hair flash in the light.

Scarlet. The one from before. Her name. It was on the tip of my tongue.

"How long until we reach Galuna Island, captain?" the woman asked. She had a kind of strict and uptight air about her when she spoke—nothing like any woman I had ever heard before.

At least I knew where we were going now. Galuna Island—not part of the World of the Living or the Seireitei, then. It had the word "luna" in it though, "moon" in Spanish. I wondered if it had something to do with the moon. Well, no getting out of it, not unless I planned to miraculously fix my wounds and learn how to swim.

"A little less than an hour, ma'am..." A pause. "Are you sure you want to go there?"

"I have my reasons. I'm on a mission."

"To do what?"

A shadow fell over her from the mast as she replied, "To bring delinquents back home for punishment. The kid I'm bringing with me is here for no reason of any interest of yours."

Man, I shouldn't have listened. Why the hell did I? I felt sick to my stomach, and that wasn't just because of my wounds. Every word from her mouth could have as easily come from Tôsen's. Just an unwelcome reminder of home. Very, very unwelcome.

You know, barely a few minutes after waking up and I was already having trouble deciding whether I missed Hueco Mundo or not.

I shifted uncomfortably under the blanket, letting out a groan when I moved a little too much. And as quiet as it was, it attracted her attention.

"Six?" she said, quietly yet with a tough undertone.

Six?

Oh. The Espada tattoo. I guess they must have started calling me that while I was out for the count. Why not? I didn't correct her. I had no reason to give my name to her anyway, although her calling me "kid" would eventually piss me off.

I stayed silent as she walked around the mast, and as soon as I saw her I confirmed that she was the redhead from before. Even in the weak lantern light I could see her scarlet hair, which shimmered every time she turned her head. It was pretty long and straight, the most prominent feature that she had, with two long tendrils framing her face and the rest draped down her back. She wasn't really like a model, but she was certainly cute at the least, with a tall pale physique and an ample bust. She wore a shining armored chest plate with a staggered bronze cross positioned over on the left side, the vertex covering up a deep red mark that I didn't recognize. Metal gauntlets with wing ornaments on the ends reached all the way up to her elbows. The ends of the armor overlapped a little with her short blue skirt, and she wore knee-length black boots beneath.

With no sound, she revealed a canteen of water in her grip and handed it to me. I was too weak to take it from her with indignance, so I just opened the cap slowly and downed half the thing in one gulp. It made my throat feel a little better—you know, like an upgrade from spikes to bricks.

"You're awake," she said in that Tôsen-like tone of hers, leaning forward a little. "That's good. We've been waiting for you to wake up since you got on the boat. Five hours or so."

Five hours. Unconscious. With life-threatening wounds. Again.

...Well. That's not concerning at all.

I took a deep breath, which somehow manifested itself into a hacking cough as soon as the cold and salty sea air scraped my throat. Then I pulled myself into a ball and waited it out for as long as I could, dragging the blanket tighter around me. She eyed me with a nervous frown, but having learned her lesson she kept her distance.

"...Six, huh?" I finally asked, after about twenty seconds of agony. I don't know why my regeneration wasn't really kicking in yet. Was I that close to dead? And how the hell was I still awake?!

Fortitude, whispered my brain. Idiotic, crapshoot, fortitude. Mashima likes you, and so does Kubo, which explains why they wouldn't let you die.

You see? This is why I don't like to fight based on brains. When your own head makes you feel like crap, you know you're screwed.

Her awkwardly authoritative tone mixed with the language of a teen brought me back from my self-loathing. "We needed to call you something besides 'kid', seeing as you're older than me. Is it okay with you?"

That's right. She seemed about nineteen or so—worlds more mature, though—while I looked to be in my early twenties and about as mature as a drunken bartender. I grunted my indifference with a shiver.

"Well, we got off to a bad start, so let's try this again. I am Erza Scarlet, an S-Class Wizard of the Fairy Tail magic guild." She placed her hands on her hips, the frown still on her face.

Erza. And scarlet.

Man, I'm an idiot.

Erza Scarlet. See, I knew I knew it. But what was the guild she and those others had been babbling about? Fairy Tail? Again, really a crappy name. And what about the other girl?

She looked down at my chest, which was covered by the blanket, and said, "You've been through hell, even without us in the way. I'm guessing Six isn't your real name. So, what's your story?"

"You wouldn't care; I know I sure don't."

Her brown eyes narrowed to slits, matching my expression minus the pain. "What do you mean by that?"

I chugged the rest of the canteen to clear my throat before saying, "Come on—Erza Scarlet, was it? Tell you what, I'm gonna go with Scarlet. Take a look at what you just said. Two of the things you said are nonexistent. Magic, and wizards. I don't even know what the hell a guild is. I don't give a shit about things that I can't fight or destroy."

Erza had seemed calm before, but the second I finished speaking, she snapped. What did I say? Not that I really cared if I had pissed her off. She had defended me from that lightning that Laxus had used, which I didn't plan on forgiving anytime soon. I had attacked her, and yet still, she couldn't just let me die there. She had saved me when I hadn't really wanted to be saved. Well, who gave her the f**king right? I didn't need her pity—ie, she didn't deserve my respect.

But even still, I didn't expect her to do what she did next. An instant after her breakdown, her gauntlets grabbed at the collar of my jacket and shoved me hard back against the boat's wall. I let out a strangled gasp as the wound snaking its way around my torso came into direct contact with the cold splintered wood and drew fresh blood.

"Sh-shit," I coughed. "That wound was done bleeding, you bitch."

But she really didn't look like she cared anymore. Her eyes flashed furiously as she said, "Nonexistent, you say? Would you like to know what a guild is? A guild is a family. And you hurt me and my family, and my family's home! I couldn't be angry at you before because I didn't wanna be like Laxus, but the truth is I'm GLAD he used his magic on you! A family protects its own, and frankly the only reason you're still here is because I won't ever let a single living thing die on my watch!"

Pfft. I didn't buy it. If she was so passionate about protecting others, she would have let me go.

After another cough, I said, "That's funny. Because you seem perfectly fine with killing me here. Besides, if you're such a family, why were you such a goddamn failure at protecting those other two girls?"

I had hit a weak spot, which was apparent when she growled and pressed me harder against the wall.

The temptation and bait was too irresistible—despite the pain, I ran my mouth. "I wouldn't know what a family is, anyway. Useless crap, that's what it sounds like to me. Too many promises, too much putting yourself at risk for others, too much time wasted on the things that won't get you anywhere! I work alone."

"Working alone will get you killed!"

"Working alone doesn't get you backstabbed."

Erza jolted away from me, as if she suddenly remembered some bad memory, and released my jacket. I fell back to the ground with a barely masked cry.

The captain had been listening in to us for the past five minutes, but upon Erza's retreat, he disappeared to another part of the ship. "Erm, I'll leave you two alone!" And poof.

"Just call me Six if you want, I really don't give a shit," I said, finally, after the staring contest the two of us had been holding for a full minute finally came to a close. The fury in her eyes had turned to pained sadness, and she wasn't looking at me anymore.

I tried painfully to stand, and was surprised to find that I could do so for more than two seconds without falling. At my full height, I was a few inches taller than her, with enough of a difference to be intimidating. Good. I liked that feeling. Helped me forget I was claustrophobic. I kept the blanket on my shoulders and placed a hand on the railing of the boat to steady me.

"Six. Want proof?"

Her question surprised me—the anger in it didn't. "Proof of what?"

"Magic."

I grunted again, a "do your worst"—type sound. That was complete crap.

"Fine. Requip—the Knight!"

As soon as the words left her mouth, she began to glow with a golden aura of energy that wasn't quite reiatsu, but similar. Her armor disappeared into the glow, which now blocked her features from my view, and with a flash, the aura faded away and a different Erza stood before me.

Her armor had completely changed. Completely. Like, while she was glowing she had taken off her clothes in front of me and gotten dressed again _and I had missed it._ (Crap.)

The armor was a lot smuttier now, revealing a large amount of her torso and cleavage and a small portion of her upper arms. All of it was made of shiny shades of white and grey steel plates, reflecting even the tiniest lights as blinding rays. A metal flower was centered on her chest, with similarly crafted petals forming wing ornaments in her hair. And that same hair was longer and wavier with more tendrils in the front obscuring her right eye. Her gauntlets were darker in color and now had boots to match; and, to be frank, she really looked like she wanted to plant her shining metal heel two feet up my ass. Two sets of white wings made of heavy steel feathers stretched out from her back, and the bottom half of her armor was a long white frilled skirt strengthened with dark navy-grey metal feathers like those on her wings. And in each of her hands, she held a long identical broadsword decorated with deep blue gems embedded in the blade and dark streaks of other metals.

But what shocked me wasn't the look—rather, I was vying for a camera and would have GLADLY taken a picture—it was the immense power that radiated from her very being, her core. Not reiatsu, definitely not. I don't know where the hell she got all of that from, but at this point I could easily compare her strength to that of the Septimo or Octavo! Or maybe even...

No. I wasn't planning to bridge that gap of strength until I saw Kurosaki again. Besides, whatever this was was on a whole different scale than reiatsu…right?

Of course, I wasn't thinking about comparisons then. I was more or less thinking every curse word that I knew in three different languages, all at once. "Hell" being by far the nicest.

"This!" she exclaimed, pointing her blades towards me. Her stare was proud and triumphant. "This is the magic that you claim is nonexistent!"

Magic.

Magic was real.

What the f**k was wrong with this place?!

I tried to conceal my disbelief as much as possible, but in the end my jaw dropped no matter what I did. It felt really weird without my mask. "Holy shit."

With a quiet scoff, she proclaimed, "Believe me now? Wizards do exist—and I am one of Fairy Tail's strongest. My magic is Requip, which allows me to switch my armor and weapons on a whim. I store them in a separate dimension and can switch one out for another depending on the situation. For demonstration purposes, I decided upon using my Heaven's Wheel Armor."

So she hadn't stripped. I decided that fact checks were officially required on everything that I thought for as long as I was in this place.

"Now you know things about me. It's your turn. I have a lot of questions for you. What's the six tattoo represent? Why is there a hole in your chest? Why are you half dead? And why were you in the guild hall?"

Pah. Simple.

The six stands for my disappointment in becoming the best.

The hole represents my sin.

I'm almost dead because it turns out that maybe I'm not what I like to think I am.

And how the f**k should I know?

These answers were too vague for someone who probably didn't know what a Hollow was. So I didn't say anything and let her speak.

"There's one thing I'm most curious about, though." The same golden glow, much less extravagant this time, surrounded her once more, and when it dwindled she was wearing the same normal chestplate and skirt as she had been previously.

And she held her hand out, and Pantera appeared in it.

Confusion hit me like a hammer to the brain case. As rapidly as I could, I looked to my left, and sure enough Pantera and its sheath were missing. But I wasn't having a panic attack like I had when I couldn't find my mask. I was more bewildered than anything—after all, she had taken my weapon once before. But how had she used that...Requip magic with it?

"...Where'd you get that?"

"I stored your weapon with my own for two reasons," Erza explained, tossing it to me. I caught it in both hands and slid the sheath of the blade, checking whether or not it was really my zanpakutô. It was. Definitely. To the nanometer.

"One, because you almost cut my head off with it before. Two, to keep it safe in case it slipped out of your belt on the way to Hargeon Town."

Huh. She had helped me.

...Weird.

"What was that engraving?" she asked, gesturing to Pantera's sheath as I sheathed it and slipped it through my belt. "On your katana."

"Not a katana," I snapped by reflex, startling her.

"It's clearly a katana."

I looked away from the water and tried to push my lunch back down into my stomach. Annoyance, walking the bridge between life and death, standing, and seasickness are really not a good combo. "Zanpakutô, not katana. I hate when people assume that all goddamn zanpakutôs are katana, and vice versa. They're not."

"...Fine then. What was that engraving on your...'zanpakutô'?" she corrected.

This time I answered. "Pantera. The Panther King."

"Pantera," Erza mused, eyes narrowing. "The name of the blade, I take it?"

"Every zanpakutô's got a name."

She nodded and didn't say more. I guess that satisfied her.

The waves decided to kick up then, mainly in volume, and reminded me just how much everything hurt. My head was feeling fuzzy again—blood loss, probably. I was about to sit down again when the captain came running around the mast to Erza. "We're almost there, ma'am!... But I think there's something you should..."

He faltered when he caught sight of me, standing more than six feet tall and about as beat-up as an a Espada can get. "Oh...you're awake."

"You can stop staring," I deadpanned, shifting the blanket so it was wrapped around my shoulders like a cloak and hid my wounds as much as possible. It was almost morning, just past the brink of sunrise, and yet still so cold. I hate the sea.

"Captain, what did you want me to see?" Erza questioned, getting the stump of a man's attention. With a trembling hand, he pointed to the front of the ship, towards what I quickly realized was Galuna Island.

It was a beautiful tropical island, true to the "luna" in its name and shaped just like Hueco Mundo's crescent moon. The ship was headed straight for the sandy beach on the inner curve of the island, which was studded with large healthy palm trees. The speed at which we were approaching, coupled with the sudden doubling of wave strength, made me so nauseous I almost wanted to puke. I grappled haphazardly at the side of the boat with both hands.

But that wasn't what caught my interest first.

No, that would have been the skimpy blonde girl being chased by a giant flying rat along the beach.

A labored groan came from Erza's lips as she covered her eyes with her hand. "Oh my god. What has Lucy gotten herself into now?"

WHAT THE F**K WAS WRONG WITH THIS PLACE.

Shoot me. Shoot me now.

Wow, Kubo's really a bitch when it comes to me, isn't he?

I shook my head and looked again, and sure enough when I opened my eyes again the scene was still there. A rat. A giant rat. I'm sure Pantera was jumping in its sheath with excitement at seeing a supersized dinner portion, but to me the scene was just so undisputedly bizarre that I couldn't do anything but gape. Despite the water being so wild, I leaned out over the side of the boat to get a better view.

"...Who is that girl?" I stammered, choosing the least random part of the setting to comment on.

Erza groaned again, a little quieter. "Lucy. She's one of the people I came here looking for—a Fairy Tail wizard who must be punished for disobeying orders. Mainly, though, I'm looking for Natsu Dragneel. He stole an S-Class quest from the place you appeared in, and roped Lucy and another Fairy Tail member into going with him. But I need him for another reason, too—he's a Fire Dragon Slayer."

Fire Dragon Slayer. Hearing those words sent a shiver down my spine, but not a bad one. He sounded powerful. I'd love to fight one who could slay a dragon. Besides, maybe he wasn't as weird as the others.

Her next sentence proved me wrong. "You'd probably like him—he's violent and prone to challenging people."

"...Are you stereotyping me?"

"Yes," she replied bluntly, which was about as subtle as an arrow between the eyes. And almost painfully correct.

"You don't even know my name."

"And whose fault is that?" she retorted. "We don't have healers in Fairy Tail, nor any open doctors offices in Magnolia at this time of day, so we figured that getting you to Natsu to cauterize the wounds with his magic was the best temporary solution."

Cauterize? Crap. "Hooray!" I deadpanned, raising my middle finger to the sky so Mashima could see it. "More pain and looking like an idiot, because I just love having open body wounds burned shut."

The two of us stayed silent as we neared the island, mainly because I was too busy hanging onto the side of the boat for dear life.

"There's stuff to eat, if you want," Erza suddenly called over the sound of crashing waves. She had followed my example and now had both hands on the rails.

"...What?"

"Before we land. I forgot to ask you. There's a little food left from the crew's dinner a while ago. You hungry?"

"No," I lied. I didn't want to eat anything and then throw it up. If I survived the next few hours, then I'd get something to eat.

"Almost there!" yelled the captain from the helm, just as the giant rat reared up for a final strike on the girl.

"Almost isn't good enough!" Erza gritted. Before anyone could stop her, she requipped a single broadsword into her hand and leapt from the boat. I had never seen a simple human leap that far—no way was she ordinary. As she grew smaller and smaller in my view, she roared to me, "Six! Stay there!"

Stay? Bullshit. I wasn't gonna just sit around! What was I, useless? If I could stand, I could fight. If I could fight, then I was fine. She didn't have the right to tell me that I wasn't good to fight.

I was reaching to grab the hilt of Pantera but stopped when I caught sight of the rat. The goddamn rat. That was seriously f**ked up, god. Did I really wanna fight that thing?

Hell no. Coupled with nausea and confusion, another look was too much—I needed off the pirate ship, as soon as possible. Maybe I could use sonído and get to the beach, since there was nothing saying I couldn't use it here. I just hoped I had the strength to do it. My head was going in and out of fuzziness moments, and right now it wasn't that good.

But I couldn't resist tempting fate. "Screw you!" I called to Erza as I climbed up onto the railing, which was just about the nicest goodbye I had ever said ever. Then I closed my eyes, pulled the blanket tighter around my shoulders, and stepped.

In hindsight, I'd say I expected to go far.

Not this far.

When I had been on the boat, I had seen a long sandy beach with a tropical forest behind it. I don't even know where I sonído'd to. Definitely not the beach. I only knew it was the same island because I could now see the ship just off the coast. It was somewhere high off the ground, maybe the top of a monument or something. At this part of the island, it was still dark, and the moon was directly above my head. And, for some strange reason, it was purple. An enormous pillar of violet light was streaming down all the way from the moon, right behind me, and looked like it was being generated by these strange glowing inscriptions on the air itself.

As I landed, I felt something press down on me, a strange huge pressure, but I could still hold myself up. What the hell had happened? My only guess was that something had happened to make my power fluctuate beyond my control, and I had gone too far with a single sonidó. But how much would it have to fluctuate for me to lose complete control?

How much power did I really have now?

I suddenly realized that I wasn't alone. Rather, I was in a circle of people, all wearing white robes in strange designs that covered up their faces. They had been chanting something before I had gotten there, but upon my appearance, their chants turned to murmurs and nervous comments. Who the hell were they?

"You! Get out of the Moon Drip!" someone ordered. I couldn't see who had spoken.

Moon Drip? I turned to look back at the purple light. Now that I saw it, it did look like the sort of thing that would fall from the moon. Like the moon was bleeding.

Two of the people in front of me moved apart and broke the circle, allowing for another to step through. He was wearing a long blue cloak and a horned helmet that covered all of his face but his mouth, and the corners were curved into a frown.

"What are you doing here?" he asked in a chilling voice. A cold aura surrounded him, but it was very different from Erza's. It was as if I was being doused in liquid nitrogen, distant and...something.

Evil.

Huh. That was the first time I had ever made that distinction, between evil and myself.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as he lifted his mask off and revealed a face that almost made me think Kubo was standing in front of me again.

Me.

...No, wait. _Not_ me. I had actually learned something from my conversation with Kubo. The word "doppelgänger" suddenly came to me. He didn't look too much like me, the more I looked. He had no tattoos, and his eyes were slanted and squinty, and a whole lot lighter. My hair was a darker shade of blue and longer, and I looked a little older then him.

"...You look like me..." He looked about as stunned as me, but after a moment the confusion quickly turned to anger. "Never mind. Leave this area at once, or I will have no choice but to remove you by force."

I really and truly laughed for the first time since waking up. "You can try."

He held his left hand out toward me, and a pale mist of ice began to surround his fingers. "With pleasure. Maker magic—Ice Make: Eagle!"

Magic.

Not again.

Thinking like a normal person for once, I leapt to the side as the icy mist congealed into frozen white eagles and pulverized the ground behind me. Unfortunately, I landed a little hard and on the side of my foot, so when I caught myself from falling I landed on my injured side. I let out another grunt of pain and pushed myself up to my knees.

"Leave now," he said again, and unleashed another volley of those icy birds from his hands. This time I wasn't in a position to dodge, so I unsheathed Pantera and had it take the brunt of the attack. Even so, one of the birds slipped past and slammed into my injured shoulder with enough force to send me skidding back towards the pillar of light behind me.

Damn it! I felt myself shoot suddenly into unconsciousness for a moment, and then an instant later I was ultra alert. Primal fear, that was what I felt. I didn't know what magic really was, but I didn't like it. It was a danger to me, that much was certain.

So how do you fight fear?

Easy. I taught myself that answer a long time ago.

Power.

And man, I could feel it here, magic or no, radiating around this monument, flowing through the circle of mages and into the beam of light behind me. That glowing purple light held lots of it, but it was waning by the second as the sun rose higher in the sky. I needed this power. I couldn't afford to lose it.

Another slip into unconsciousness for a split second—everything went black and then suddenly flashed back into my heightened awareness mode. Now or never.

Tentatively, testing my strength, I dragged myself to my feet and headed towards the pillar.

"Wait! Stop right there!" ordered the kid, a hand out facing me. That crazy ice magic was no longer flowing from his fingers, but he still looked like he really wanted to use it. "That Moon Drip will change anyone who comes into contact with it!"

Change. I liked the sound of that.

I took one last hateful look at the doppelgänger and leapt into the light.

...

* * *

Erza

...

"Kyaaaa! Erza, please, I'm sorry! Can you untie me now?"

I didn't lower myself to respond as I dragged Lucy and Happy through the forest behind me. As soon as I had saved her, I had captured them, rendering my task half-done. Each one had a full length of rope around their torso, which was significantly harder for me to do to a tiny blue cat like Happy than a busty teen like Lucy. The two of them were complaining like crazy, not even stopping their babbling mouths to breath. Honestly, the immaturity of some guild members surprised me.

Of course, Happy's a cat, so there's not much there to expect, and Lucy's very new to Fairy Tail. You can't really expect much from either.

"Erza-san, if you let me go, I'll give you a fish!" said Happy.

Not a moment later, he was met with a screech from Lucy. "Eehhhh?! Don't be stupid, you little cat freak! She doesn't want fish! And why aren't you vouching for me too?"

"Because you were breaking Fairy Tail rules while I" —a triumphant kitty smile— "was forcefully coerced."

"That's a lie! You tricked me because of the reward, the Gate Key! You knew I'd wanna come!"

"Noooooope, that was Natsu."

"You're a demon!"

"Aye!"

I had had enough. And do keep in mind that this had been somewhere around five minutes of this, and I was already losing my head. So either they're the most agitating duo I've ever seen, or I have a bad temper.

...Meh. Little bit of both.

With no warning, I yanked their two ropes to the side, so each one of them was dragged sharply away from the other and slammed into a tree.

"You fools, be quiet. The only reason I haven't carted you back to Master yet is because I'm still looking for Gray and Natsu. Mainly Natsu. So if I hear another word from either one of you, the ropes will not be around your chests, but around your necks."

"...W-wow, Erza-san, you're so cruel and strict." Lucy said with a tear in her eye.

I said nothing and continued along. It was eerily peaceful here in the forests of Galuna Island, the supposed "Cursed Island". The trees blocked all light from above, even though I knew by now that the sun had risen. We went another two minutes in silence before I heard a strange rustling sound in the bushes.

"Happy, was that you?" Lucy said with a tremor in her voice.

"No."

"Quiet!" I snapped, and dropped their ropes. They were still tied, but they had enough space and mobility to at least walk the tiniest bit. I requipped my broadsword and aimed it at the bushes apprehensively.

Imagine my surprise when a panther staggered through the bushes to my left.

But not just any panther.

A pure white panther with a hole in the center of his torso and a black "6" tattoo on his right hindquarters.

The second I saw the tattoo, I acted, way before I thought of any plan. My broadsword fell to the ground with a clang, startling the panther into a growl. Before he could run, I leapt towards him and grabbed onto his front paws, shoving him down on his back as hard as I could. The weight of my armor and his lighter weight helped. As soon as I had his front legs, I placed my feet on his back so he couldn't attack me or squirm away. A loud roar burst from his muzzle, so loud I almost jumped away, but somehow I held my ground.

Six. This was Six. It had to be Six, I was sure of it. He had the tattoo, the hole, even the markings under his eyes and a black collar-like mark around his neck that looked a little like his jacket. But...how on earth had he become a monster? And how had he gotten off the boat in his condition? Damn it, I knew I shouldn't have left him alone.

"Six, tell me, is that you?" I gritted, as one of his paws wormed out of my grip and left a big trailing scratch on the right side of my face. I let out a tiny cry at the wound but said nothing more.

"Get off me, Scarlet!"

Six, definitely. I recognized his voice above his feral growls and roars. He could talk as a beast. He had become a beast. A panther.

Wait a second, was there a connection between his form and his zanpakutô, Pantera? He said it meant "Panther King". That must be it. This must be some form of freakish transformation magic that I had never seen before, but I just didn't understand it.

"Get off, bitch!"

"No! I won't!"

Lucy shrieked again, but this time from fear, as she scooted behind a tree and dragged Happy with her. "Erza, what are you doing? And what is that thing?!"

"Shut up, Lucy!"

"Shut up, blondie!" Six snarled.

"Aye, sir!" yelled Happy.

"Scarlet," said Six with a growl, turning his attention back to me, "I don't need your help, so why don't you just let me go?!"

"Relax, Six!" I yelled to him, holding his claws down and away as hard as I could. He was fading fast, I could see that, but he kept insisting on fighting back with everything he had. Why?! Persistence like that could kill a man. We needed to fix his wounds, and possibly even his temper if we could. "I'm going to get you to Natsu, just calm down—"

"DON'T YOU DARE F**KING PITY ME!" he roared.

"ARE YOU EVEN GIVING ME A CHOICE TO DO SOMETHING ELSE?!" I cried back.

That effectively shut him up, and he stopped squirming, and probably realized then just how screwed he was. I could see his wounds now, they weren't bleeding anywhere near as much anymore but still looked pretty serious. A few new ones had opened up as well, but how they had was unknown. No doubting it, he and Natsu would like each other. His chest was rising up and down faintly, slower every second.

"Listen, you little bastard," I hissed, panting from the effort of keeping his attacks away from me. "If you can't accept pity, then you should die right here and now. But unfortunately for you, you're going to have to accept it, because I'm not letting you die until you apologize to Fairy Tail and the others you hurt!"

His bright blue eyes went wide with surprise and shock for an instant, and then with a low growl, they slid back in his head and his eyes shut. His breathing slowed down drastically—unconscious yet again. In fact, the only thing telling me he was still breathing was the faint cloud of mist that appeared every few seconds in front of his nostrils.

Lucy and Happy slowly crept out from behind the tree, each one of them looking like they were having a heart attack. "Who is that, Erza-san?"

I stood and removed my hands from his paws, staring down at him with the pity he so hated. "He told us to call him Six. He's actually a man, a little older than me. He appeared in the guild hall and attacked me, Laxus, Mirajane, and Cana."

"What?" Lucy looked understandably confused. "He attacked the guild? Why?"

"Good question," I whispered.

Then she took another look at him and screamed again. "Kyaaa! He has a hole in his chest!"

"So...what is he?" Happy said softly.

I sure as hell didn't know. "Another good question."

In fact, staring down at him, there was only one thing I could say.

"What are you, Six?"

No response.

...

* * *

**Hooooooray! Chapter Three is up. Imma pat myself on the back. *does in fact pat herself on the back* Good job, me. Good job.**

**So Grimmjow is back in his Adhuchas form. What? How? Why? Because...well, wait and see! I plan on staying on Galuna Island a little bit longer, maybe a chapter or so more. If you have any ideas for either Segunda Etapa or episodes that I can incorporate into the story (I've already got a plan for Changeling! Poor Grimmy Kitty. Teehee...), let me know! I like reads, reviews, favorites, and even the dreaded criticism! **

**Next chapter—Team Natsu goes head to head with Lyon, attempts to save Galuna Island, fixes the moon, and somehow manages to convince Grimmjow to help. At least, that was what they attempted. How will it turn out? Don't ask me! I haven't started yet!**

**Baibai!**


	4. Tilt the Temple

**JTS: *sobs uncontrollably***

**Grimmjow: *walks by***

**Grimmjow: *sees JTS***

**Grimmjow: *nudges her shoulder with his foot***

**Grimmjow: Hey, bitch, you're late on the chapter.**

**JTS: I CAN SEE THAT**

**Grimmjow: Relax. It's two days late, not a year. Besides, judging from the good reviews, I'm sure you're fine.**

**JTS: IT'S TWO DAYS TOO LATE I'M A FAILURE AND AN IDIOT AND I SHOULD DIE NOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW**

**JTS: Also? Blizzard.**

**Grimmjow: ...I just gave you a goddamn compliment, and that's what you're thinking about?**

**Grimmjow: ...You enjoy f**king with me a lot, don't you?**

**JTS: BUT I CAN'T DO IT WHEN I HAVE HW AND NO LIFE AND ASDFFG**

**Grimmjow: *muttering* That didn't stop you.**

**JTS: No it did not.**

**Grimmjow: *middle finger***

**JTS: That so? Just for that, prepare to have yourself humiliated by the guild a few chapters from now. Oh, and by your zanpakutô subsequently.**

**Grimmjow: …**

**Grimmjow: F**K.**

**JTS: You know I love you.**

**Internet: Can you just stop procrastinating and finish writing so I can go and do something besides play the last five minutes of FT episode 14 over and over for you?**

**JTS: Get the hell outta my prologue.**

* * *

**I'm sorry! So very very sorry! I warned that I get really devoted to my schedule. I literally didnt sleep last night for you guys, finishing this thing. And I'm proud of it!**

**This chapter! Gray runs into Erza and a less-than-hospitable Grimmjow, whom everyone still thinks is named Six. And Natsu gets some action started!**

**Warning. Be prepared for ice puns. A lot of ice puns.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own either Bleach or Fairy Tail, although I wish I was that lucky. No OC's this time.**

**WARNING: SPOILERS FOR ALL OF BLEACH AND MOST OF FAIRY TAIL! READ AT YOUR DISCRETION...**

* * *

Chapter Four: Tilt the Temple

...

* * *

Gray

...

Let's get one thing straight. The worst thing to do in Fairy Tail is to piss off Erza Scarlet.

Why?

Because, depending on the altercation, she comes to get you herself.

I've known this for years and years. Ever since I joined Fairy Tail, as a toddler, I've known her for her irrational stubbornness and scary-ass attitude. Nothing ever changes with Erza. Ever.

So why, oh why did I expect to be off the hook this time?

My first indication that something was off was the fact that I woke up in some sort of tent that was clearly far away from where I had been last. It felt like morning too—what had happened after my fight with Lyon? I could have sworn I didn't come here afterwards...

The fight with Lyon.

Ohh...crap.

Oh, man, I was not expecting to run into him. Of all people. The last one I ever wanted to see again was Lyon Vastia, my childhood friend and fellow apprentice of Ur. Emotion hit me like one of those sledgehammers JTS likes so much—this one in particular had the words "damn it all" printed in big bold letters on the side that slammed up against my skull.

But when the hammer hit, I didn't so much as flinch. No, instead, I sat up and curled into a tiny little "Gray-Fullbuster-miserable-failure-at-everything-of-everything-and-anything-ever-ness" ball, dragging my feet up against my chest as I listened to Lyon's words still ringing in my skull.

Don't talk to me about disgracing Ur!

You killed her!

You challenged the demon Deliora, at the cost of Ur's life!

What kind of a student are you?!

Yeah. What kind of a student am I? I let my teacher, the only person I could ever call as close to me as a mother, sacrifice her life for me because I was too stupid and young to control my impulse for revenge. I'm a failure of an Ice Make mage.

And Lyon had completely kicked my ass.

Again.

Like always.

And with goddamned one-handed Ice Make, too.

Before my fury could boil over the edge, I took a deep breath of the clean air around me and shook myself out of depression. Oh well. When you feel like crap, it's best to get over it as quickly as possible. Keeping a cool head helps, when you're a guy like me. Pun intended.

Looking around, I must have been in the village that Natsu, Lucy and I had arrived in yesterday. After all, that was the only inhabited area I knew of on the entire island—beside the pyramid where Lyon now reigned as what his followers called "Reitei.' There, in that warped temple of his, that bastard was trying to revive the very demon that our teacher Ur had given her life to seal away. Deliora.

I don't see how I could ever forgive him.

"Where am I?" I asked nobody, and got no answer. Rightfully so, since nothing was there unless I counted crates and storage containers. I got to my feet slowly and walked out of the tent, startled by how bright the sun was in the sky as it left me momentarily blinded. My head was ringing to the point where you could have told me that I had died and been revived and I would have believed you.

"Oh, thank goodness! I'm glad you're awake. You've been out for a while."

Who the hell? Still blinking away the dark spot that was burned into my retina, I turned to the person who had spoken and was met by a pretty young girl with a solemn face. "A while, huh? What is this place?"

"It's a storage area not very far from the village." She laced her hands together and sighed sadly. "The entire thing was destroyed in the attack last night, so the villagers decided to come here for shelter."

I had a sudden urge to punch a brick wall then. Lyon—he was the only one who could have—would have—done something as cold as that. At the end of our fight, he had told his top lackeys to destroy the village; I could remember this now. What on earth was wrong with the guy? Reviving a demon wasn't enough?!

...Apparently not. That heartless bastard.

I gritted my teeth as I spoke to keep from taking out my frustration on her. "The whole village? That's terrible."

My gaze traveled down to her left leg, which was different from all the others limbs and was scaled and reptilian. Lyon was using Moon Drip, a forbidden magic that could melt even the strongest of all magic, to break Deliora's seal and unleash it on the world. As a result of the Moon Drip, the inhabitants of Galuna Island were being mutilated by the magic radiation. At night they turned into complete ravenous beasts, and during the day they were human.

She looked down at her feet with another sad sigh. But not before her eyes lingered on my chest for a moment longer than socially acceptable. Not that I really minded. People do that a lot.

"It's a blessing that Natsu and Lucy were here when they were. Otherwise, none of us would be able to make it out of there alive."

So the two idiots hadn't gotten hurt. That was a relief. Nothing bad had happened to them. They had saved the villagers. "Are they still around here somewhere?"

"Yeah. They actually wanted me to take you to their tent once you woke up."

"Which one?"

She pointed to a large one in the center of the storage area. "That big one, right over there."

I didn't waste any time—the second she finished, I walked briskly over to the tent, ignoring the fact that I felt like I was carrying a sack of bricks.

And when I walked in, I came face to face with Erza Scarlet, sitting on a sideways log with legs crossed and fingers laced with all the fury of a mafia crime lord about to execute a failed lackey.

I suddenly had a strange urge to run away and never come back. Funny. Erza causes that a lot when she's around me. I mean, come on. She gets Natsu and I to HUG each other, for crying out loud. Fire and f**king ice! If that's not the work of devil hands, then I don't know what is.

The lividity that she carried was heavy in her gaze as she said, "You made me wait. Not smart."

"Erza?" If I had been any other member of Fairy Tail, I would have shrieked and dropped to my knees begging her for forgiveness. But I'm not really like any of the others. Wusses, all of them. Instead of showing the terror outright like my comrades, I masked it all with a blank uncaring expression. Besides, I had bigger things to worry about than Titania having my head...

Right?

My attention turned to Lucy and Happy, both of whom were sitting to Erza's right and bound with ropes. "Um, why are they tied up?"

"Please get me out of this," Lucy sobbed melodramatically, tears streaking down her face in big blue waterfalls. Even though I barely knew the girl, I could tell that her dramatic side was the most prominent. At her side, Happy had on a similar expression, which looked comical enough to tug the corners of my mouth up just a tiny bit.

Slowly, Erza stood and placed a hand on her hip with a clank of her armor, magnifying the mafia look by infinity easily and wiping the beginnings of a smile from my face. "Lucy's brought me up to speed on what's happened here. I heard you were sent here to stop these two, along with Natsu. And I imagine my disappointment is obvious enough."

"Yeah, where exactly is Natsu, anyway?" I asked.

"Wouldn't we all like to know" was her cold reply.

Sounded to me more like, "He's gonna lose his sanity by the time I'm done with him" than anything else.

I was about to comment further when I noticed exactly why Lucy and Happy were whimpering.

Lying down on the floor between them was a pure white panther, covered in multiple bad wounds and scratches. Some of them were almost horrifying to look at—and how in hell was that thing alive with those wounds? A perfect clean circular hole was carved neatly through his torso on his lower back, and next to the hole was a black tattoo of the number six. His coat was matted with thick dark blood, which was slowly forming a puddle around him. Despite the wounds, though, he was still clearly alive, with his chest moving up and down slowly in time with his labored breathing.

"...Um...Erza?"

"Gray."

"What..." I breathed. "What is that?"

I didn't expect an answer. But I got one.

And it wasn't from the girl at my throat, but rather from the subject of the discussion.

"Adjuchas," growled the panther.

I blinked once, twice, unsure of what I had seen. And heard. That had been a guy's voice, slightly rougher than mine and a little angrier in general tone. Definitely a guy's voice, though. Not a growl or a panther-esque snarl.

Did the panther...just talk?

"You can stop looking at me like I'm the only mental case here. These nut jobs use f**king witchcraft or some shit like that."

Yes. Yes he did.

The second he spoke again, I legitimately jumped three feet in the air. "Holy shit, you're actually talking."

"Yeah," said Lucy with tears running down the side of her face. "He does that."

He scoffed indignantly and moved his head to look away. "Tch. Of course I do. What, you don't have talking animals around here?"

"We do... But it's still weird. There's a difference between a baka neko and a panther, you know!"

Speaking of talking animals. Happy whimpered pathetically, a ghost of his normal energetic self. "The blood is creeping me out, Erza-san, please let me move?"

"Don't even think about it."

"You got a problem, stripper?" the panther growled again, giving me incentive to wanna punch the smug bastard of a cat right in the face. So what if I take off my shirt at random intervals without noticing? In fact, I had done it before even walking into the tent and hadn't realized. Or...was that during my fight with Lyon? Couldn't remember. At least now it made sense why that village girl had been ogling me.

Erza closed her eyes agitatedly, a first sign of her doing something other than being angry—obviously, she was more used to this guy's "generic asshole" attitude than I was, but still didn't like it. Coupled with her fury, her annoyance was casting shadows over her face until she looked about ready to explode. "Gray, just bear with it."

It took me a few seconds to adjust to it, but another look at an angry Erza sped up my reaction time by a factor of infinity. Once I had relaxed, I was fairly able to look at him without the urge to freeze him in place.

"Six, what do you mean, 'Adjuchas'?" Erza queried.

Six, huh?

Oh. That tattoo on his back. It made sense, I guess. A weird name for a talking panther though.

Wait. Fairy Tail has a flying talking navy cat with big magical bird wings called Happy. Who is best friends with the Fire Dragon Slayer, Natsu Dragneel. I revoke my previous assumption.

Six sat up on his haunches for a moment, but judging from the wince and the sudden yelp of pain—explicit swears included—it was too much for him with his injuries and he laid back down. Still took me a little time to get used to that. As his eyes slid lazily shut, he began to explain.

"Crap. This shit hurts... Oh, hell, it's not like telling you'll kill me. I have three forms. Actually, it's more accurate to say four. There's my Gillian form, but I can never return to it so I don't count it as one of the three. I didn't think I could return to this Adjuchas form either, but turns out I was wrong."

All that time, I kept staring like an invalid at his muzzle. It looked so strange to see words coming from a real predator cat's mouth, and yet here they were. His mouth moved like a panther's, but human sounds came out of it, mixed with a rumbling sound that I could only guess was a panther's equivalent of purring.

"So that's two," said Happy; except instead of being clearly confused like Lucy and I, he was staring off dreamily above my head. "Gillian, and Adjuchas. They sound yummy!"

"I SWEAR TO GOD, YOU MOTHERF**KING CAT, I WILL EAT YOU."

"Aye? Would you eat someone in your own species?"

"I've literally eaten my kind's equivalent of my older brother and four younger brothers. Guess for yourself. AND LIKE HELL AM I IN THE SAME SPECIES AS A TALKING CAT!"

"You're talking right now, you widdle puddytat."

"You have brothers?" I couldn't help but ask incredulously.

"WAIT, AND YOU ATE THEM?!"

Lucy yelped and scurried backwards some more, away from him. "Just imagine how bad this guy's brothers might be, if he's this much of a jerk!"

"SHUT UP, YOU ASSHOLE! DON'T YOU DARE—OW!"

The last part came from Erza dropping a fist on his head, and he let out a fully feline roar of pain and annoyance. Somehow, she had followed this whole charade without any complaint. "Six, relax," scolded Erza. "Happy's only concern in life is food, so don't expect intelligent input from him. As for Lucy and Gray...better to just ignore it."

"Nrgh... I f**king hate you, Scarlet." He fixed his gaze on Lucy before saying, "Not a single one of you has the right to bad-mouth those five. Only I can do that."

If Titania really cared about his opinion of her, she said nothing. No, she seemed too interested in the forms he was talking about. Already you could see an unhealthy curiosity glowing in her eyes, and her anger almost seemed to be a thing of the past. "You said there's two more forms that you have?"

"...Yeah. Gillian is weakest. Adjuchas is moderate. Then, I have my Vasto Lorde form, which is humanoid and the most powerful natural form. It's the one you met me in."

I could almost see the gears in Erza's head turning, trying to understand what he was saying. "You're clearly not human then."

"Don't even compare me to one of you pitiful bastards."

"This 'pitiful bastard' saved your life," she retorted.

"Which I didn't want you to do! How many times to have to say that you're not wanted around me?!"

"Wanted or no, you're alive because I saved you from Laxus."

"Bitch, I keep telling you I didn't need your pity—"

"Pity is a good thing in moderation, Six."

"Bullshit on you and your moderation crap!"

"Are you really so heartless?"

At this point, the deadly tension between the duo could have set the guild hall on fire.

"The classes—which ones are your brothers?" asked Lucy suddenly, breaking the tension with an even more awkward abrupt silence. The two of them whipped their heads around to stare at her, but surprisingly she did nothing more than flinch under their scrutiny. Gulping, she scooted forward once again to stare at Six with a tentatively curious vibe.

Erza sighed and backed away.

For a moment, the look in Six's feline eyes made me fear for Lucy's safety, because he looked about ready to snap her neck between his jaws. I was about to step forward and block him from Lucy when he answered, "I'm a Vasto Lorde, the strongest of the six of us. Four of them are mid-level Adjuchas, Shawlong being the oldest of all of us. D-Roy's the closest to a Gillian in strength and the youngest. They all look human though. Ugly bastards."

"Where are they now?"

"Where they are, you ask? Dead. All five. One after another after another, all the same night."

His tone was bitter when he spoke, but it was hard to pull apart remorse from disappointment and annoyance.

"Oh...I'm sorry, Six." Lucy looked about to shoot herself for bringing up something that must have been a sore subject, and she retreated from him with a sigh.

"...I didn't mean to be mean, I'm sorry." Happy murmured, almost imperceptibly.

"Sorry, man. That's rough," I said. Difficult to picture him caring about anything, although I guess I didn't know him well enough. A sudden image of him as a human popped into my head, with him standing over his five fallen brothers with a tear sliding down his cheek. Although I didn't know what he looked like, I could still imagine the general scene.

But the mushy picture of a crying Six melted away with the next words he said. Despite his obvious injuries, he started towards me with a feral snarl, blood dripping from his wounds and his teeth bared in more than just pain. "Hey, do I look like I give a shit? They fell in battle; in short, they were too weak to be my Fracciónes. D-Roy, Nakim, Edorad, Ilfort and Shawlong—all failures."

Then he looked away. "Besides...they're not 'really' my brothers."

That one. That was regret. Obviously he felt closer to them than he was letting on.

Thankfully, the nice cat in the room decided to break the bad mood over us. "So you're a Vasto Lorde," Happy recounted, this time pouting. Guess it didn't sound delicious enough. "What's the fourth one?"

"Resurreción. And that one is none of your business." And he turned to face the back wall, sat down, and the conversation was done. "I still wish you hadn't saved me—I'd rather be dead right now."

That put me in a sour mood. "Bastard," I said. "I don't exactly understand the context of the situation, but you could be grateful."

"Grateful? Please. I don't exactly have to kiss ass to a male stripper, an idiot blonde, a f**king bitch of catastrophic proportions, and a flying cat, now do I?"

"I take offense to two of those," Lucy exclaimed hotly.

"Make that two bitches."

"You look like shit," I responded to Six dryly, switching topics. "Who did that?"

Six growled and jumped at me, but before his feet even left the ground he was stopped by something. It took another second of me looking to realize that there was a cord tied around one of his back paws, and the other end of the rope was in Erza's hand. Jeez, that must have been really humiliating.

He seemed to realize it about the same time as I did, and swore under his breath. "Wow, bitch, you really can't just let me go, can you?"

"Not until you apologize to Master," Erza replied, stern as ever. Apologize to Master Makarov? Oh man. Whatever he did must have been a thousand times worse than anything the four of us could have ever dreamed up, if even Erza was demanding that he apologized.

"Apologize? Over my dead body."

"Close to the truth."

Then she too developed the same interest I had in his wounds, particularly the fresher ones. "Who did that? Part is Laxus, I know that much; and part is someone else, whom you haven't said anything about; so who gave you the newer cuts?"

He shot me a glance of absolute hatred before replying, "Back on the boat, I saw you go onto the island after Blondie, so I tried to follow."

"How?" Lucy inquired. Wow, she's really gifted at switching from freaked out to curious to everything in between.

His eyes narrowed. "I jumped into the salt water with open wounds and f**king swam my way to the top of a temple. What do you think?! I stepped off, like Scarlet. But I stepped farther than I thought I would."

"Temple?" I asked incredulously. He had been to Lyon's temple on the other end of the island? That was pretty far away from the beach to 'step'.

"This messed-up pyramid thing. There was a huge pillar of purple light there, and when I was looking at it, some guy who looked a little like me tried to kill me with...ice magic, I think." Six slowly shook his head from side to side, sounding pretty pissed off. "Said something about eagles, and then they just appeared. Ice scuplture birds, aguilás. I hate birds."

"Like this?" I asked, and held out my hand palm up as icy mist flew from it and surrounded my fingers. Using Ice Make magic without an incantation was no difficult matter for something this small—a tiny frozen bird sculpture appeared in my grasp, as similar to Lyon's as I could make it from memory.

A sigh of annoyance escaped from his mouth, but it didn't really match the surprised look that flashed in his eyes. "...Oh, crap. Not you too. What, you here to finish me?"

"Don't be an idiot, of course not!" I replied gruffly. "The guy who attacked you—did he have light blue hair and a horned helmet?"

"Yeah."

"That's Lyon Vastia." I wrung my wrists as I confirmed it for myself. "He and I trained under the same teacher, and we use the same type of magic. Ice Maker Magic. And that purple light was Moon Drip, a magic spell that can undo any other form of magic—"

"Not that I care," he butted in. "So you know that jackass? Well, that explains why you can use a similar...ability to him."

"Magic," Erza interjected.

"Not magic," he replied rigidly, enunciation on every word. "Magic is not real."

"But I've seen you use it."

"I told you, I don't use magic! Magic shouldn't exist!"

Erza was unconvinced. "Nothing you can say will change my opinion."

"And no amount of your flashy wardrobe changes will change mine," he retorted, snapping his jaws shut in what I could only guess was supposed to be indignance. After a tense staring contest between the mage and the panther, Six continued his explanation. "During the attack, I jumped into that Moon Drip thing and then somehow—I don't f**king understand, don't ask me to explain—I got reverted one form back from Vasto Lorde to Adjuchas."

So he was a victim of Lyon's scheme as well, huh? That explained the "talking" part of "talking panther". But if anything was to be told from the people I had seen in the village, Erza harboring a person under Moon Drip's manipulation was not smart in the slightest.

After another grunt of pain, he asked, "How do you undo the...this Moon Drip thing?"

"Theoretically, exposure to sunlight should reverse the effects until nighttime again."

"Huh. And that Natsu guy you were looking for, Scarlet... It's safe to assume that he wants to go to that temple place and stop whatever that icy bastard is doing?"

"It'd be so unlike Natsu to pass up the opportunity," Lucy deadpanned.

He narrowed his eyes, "Ah," and said nothing more.

Unfortunately, Lucy noticed the skeptical look that was forming on my face. "Gray? What are you thinking?"

"Spit it out, stripper," Six said idly, not really caring from the looks of it.

I crossed my arms with a whoosh of breath. "The Moon Drip has been turning the residents of this town into monsters and making them go on rampages," I said, a twinge of suspicion in my voice. "The village's chief has had to murder his own son to stop him from killing the villagers. So it's hard to believe that you're the exception to the rule."

At this, he let out a scoff, followed soon after with a grunt of pain that weakened his tough presentation. "That's your problem, not mine. Trust me. If I went on a rampage, you'd know about it. Even my Fracciónes couldn't stop me last time."

"I'd stop you," Erza said, surprising me, because she had seemed at least a little more compassionate about him than about Lucy, Natsu and I in this situation. But right now, her tone was dark and unwelcoming. "It wouldn't take Laxus this time—and by the way, I think you should know that he wasn't really trying that time—I'd kill you without hesitation."

He met her stare without waver—the first person I had ever seen to not be even the slightest bit intimidated by the strength of her gaze. "Oh really? Well, it'll take more than a sword through the gut to take me down, and last time we fought, I kicked your ass off a railing while being held down by four people. And went unconscious a few minutes later. So good luck."

"I wasn't prepared. But I will be now. It was wrong for me to be so trusting of you from the beginning."

"It really was," Six agreed frigidly.

For a moment, the room suddenly darkened, the only light seeming to converge on Six's side of the tent.

And in that moment of Six made his move.

"Cero!"

Erza seemed to get whatever was happening well before I did, and a disbelieving look flashed across her face as she roared, "SIX, STOP THIS!"

"Kyaa!"

Crap. Lucy.

"Get down, Lucy!" I was on the defensive before I even thought of it as I leapt in front of Erza, already pounding my fist into my palm. "Ice Make: Shield!"

A blue magic circle appeared in the air ahead of me, the now-frigid air in the tent chilling the very blood in my body. It was a very welcome feeling for me, that cold. I'm used to it—I learned to fight in blizzards. Within an instant, a jagged wall of ice shot up from the ground in between Six and Lucy, who had somehow wormed her way free of the ropes and was now squeezing Happy like he was a stress ball.

And a good thing too, because not a moment after, an agonizingly bright explosion of crimson light shot from the end of Six's tail, shattering the ice wall on contact.

Lucy let out a terrified shriek as a rain of icy slivers hailed down on her, but somehow she managed to get back to her feet and run over to me as the volatile light ripped through the side of the tent where she had been sitting.

As quickly as it had come, it was over.

And when I looked back, Six was gone.

F**k! That bastard, attacking and then running away? Clenching my fists, I stared at the ruins of the tent, which now threatened to topple over because of the enormous hole in its side. "Oh, I'm gonna kill him."

"Get in line," Lucy replied weakly, the shock of almost getting blown up suddenly hitting her full force, and she sagged over and dropped to her knees in a heaping mass of nerves.

I heard a strange sort of noise from outside the tent, impossible to explain, almost like a shimmering; and then suddenly the faint sound of paws slamming on sand turned to padded footfalls. He had tricked me into telling him how to return to normal, and then had run off.

The sound of surprised screams followed from the townsfolk.

"What the—"

"The explosion came from the storage tent!"

"A panther? What's it doing here?"

"Get out of the way, kids!"

"You're not a villager!"

"Oh my god, are you okay?!"

"There's a hole in his chest..."

"All of you, shut the hell up and don't get in the way!"

Six's voice.

The cries faded into the distance, along with the sound of Six fleeing.

"Doesn't use magic, he says," Lucy hyperventilated. "It shouldn't exist, he says."

No. That wasn't magic.

Erza looked downright pissed at this point, to the point where I had to swallow the bile that was rising in my throat. "That little shit. He's such an idiot—we're trying to help him, why can't he see that?"

"Erza-san, I really don't think he's the type of guy who'll listen to reason," Happy said dryly.

"Really?" The venom in her words could have poisoned a viper.

Happy's eyes went wide as he shrieked, "I'M SORRY ERZA-SAN PLEASE FORGIVE ME!"

Just when it looked like she was about to blow up, she sighed and looked to where he had been a few moments before. A thick trail of blood had been left behind him, heading towards the forest from the looks of it. Had he really been so badly injured? I mean, even I hadn't seen the extent of his wounds. And he had acted so goddamn calm, too...

Getting on her knees, she dipped one finger in the pool below her and looked at the crimson droplets gleaming on the metal gauntlets covering her hands.

"This blood is fresh," she murmured. "He was acting like such a badass and trying to look fine, but he's seriously wounded."

I said nothing, because there was a sort of contemplating expression on her face, like she was trying to figure out how to deal with this situation.

It was Lucy who broke the silence, visibly shaken but still able to stand. "So, Erza, what are we going to do now?"

"I'm looking for Natsu," Erza stated simply, standing from the ground. "We'll all look for Six at the same time. Then Natsu fixes Six, however temporarily, and we go back to the guild so you can all face your punishment."

"How in hell would he fix that panther jackass's wounds?!" I yelled, pointing to the trail of blood that went from Erza's feet out the front of the tent and undoubtedly through the village.

And despite what I had expected of her, for her to say that I was just going to have to believe her and cut the crap, her tone softened in the slightest. "He can at least temporarily cauterize them until we can find Porlyusica. It's better to just do something simple and temporary until we permanently sort his whole thing out. Gray, I don't know what happened to him, but when we found this guy, he was about to die. And as furious as I am with all of you, saving this kid is equal in priority to taking you all home. Once I do what I came here to do, we will leave, and he's going to suffer for hurting Mira and Cana and destroying the S-Class floor."

I froze.

He had hurt members of Fairy Tail and damaged the guild hall.

If I didn't hate him before, I sure did now.

But even through all the hatred, one thing she said needed to be addressed. She claimed she had no business here.

"What, so you don't care what happens to the villagers here? About their curse problem?"

She responded with a cold, "What of it?"

"What of it?" Lucy exclaimed. "These people are forced to kill their family, their friends, all because of what Lyon is doing to revive that demon!"

"I have to stop Lyon from releasing Deliora, no matter what," I hissed.

Now it was Erza's turn to snap, and she requipped her blade as a warning to me. "You will do no such thing! My first priority is bringing traitors back to the guild, not saving a pathetic village that can't even take care of its own problems. The request for this island is found in multiple other guilds as well as Fairy Tail, each of which has more than enough qualified S-Class wizards who can take this job and complete it more wholly than the four of you can."

"You can't turn your back on them!"

There was the slightest twinge of doubt in her voice as she replied, "Yes, I can. And if you value your life and the respect of Fairy Tail, you will too."

That bitch. Nothing would stop me, not even Erza.

Half-thinking, half-fuming, I reached down for her broadsword and placed the tip against my Fairy Tail guild stamp—the navy blue mark to the right of my heart.

"Ah!" Lucy cried. "Gray, what are you doing?!"

Erza's eyes registered shock and indecision as her hand began to shake. "Gray, don't do anything stupid."

"Take your own advice," I said softly, blood already flowing from my hand where it gripped her shaking sword. "But I've made my choice. If you plan on stopping me, you'll have to f**king kill me."

"Why are you being so insistent?!"

"Why don't you care about what happens?!"

"Aargh!" With an angry yell, she ripped the blade from my hands and dissolved it. "You are the most stubborn person..."

Not one to take no for an answer, I beckoned Lucy over silently. She and Happy followed without hesitation.

"Erza, we are not just gonna sit through his one!" Lucy exclaimed.

Erza watched them come to me, and something in her softened yet again. "You really plan to go through with this?"

"Absolutely."

She stared at me, and then it was grey eyes on grey eyes, determined sparks flying, but damn if I didn't win this one.

A sigh escaped from her lips. "Fine. I'll help. We find Natsu and Six, finish the quest, and then go home."

Despite myself, a triumphant smile settled on my face. "Glad you saw reason."

Lucy sighed and brushed the dirt off of her miniskirt. "Well, it's official. Let's go find those two."

"We have a baka neko to catch!" shreed Happy.

"I couldn't agree more," I replied.

We had a panther to catch.

Oh, and a Dragon Slayer.

This would be fun.

...

* * *

Natsu

...

You're probably wondering where the f**k I ran off to. Am I a coward, you're thinking. Is Natsu Dragneel scared of the demon Titania? Is that why he wasn't there to make sure the others were okay?

Well, think again. I didn't run from the village to escape Erza. Don't be a friggin' idiot! I came to that bastard Reitei's temple to blow it up.

I gotta tell you, I f**king love when my brain works. Call me an idiot, and I won't stop you (usually); but when the few cells I've got up there function like a normal person, you'd be surprised what crazy inventive shit I can come up with. I mean, I actually had a plan this time for something. That was rare, real rare.

Lookin' at it now, the temple wasn't that impressive at all. Hell, it was a piece of crap. It was big, sure, and on top of the highest point on the island, but besides that it really wasn't much. I'd like to meet the idiot who built that shitty pyramid Temple of the Moon and punch him in the face. With fire. Lots and lots of fire.

(AN: Said JTS when suddenly the candle next to her freakin' EXPLODED and then went back to burning like a good little candle as if nothing had happened. O.O Karma. Carry on.)

I don't take things like this slowly. When I say I'm gonna blow something up, I do it. And the people in that temple—that Reitei bastard Lyon, specifically—were going to figure it out firsthand.

When I got to the temple entrance, I let out a yawn, followed by a yell of excitement. Man, was I fired up! How was I gonna do it? Go to the top and smash my way through? Go to the bottom and do the same thing? Or just mess up the temple from the inside and watch it crumble? Any way would be fun.

"Hey, Lyon!" I yelled, and I raised my hand above my head with a gleeful grin. With a burst of light, my fingers erupted into roaring flames. "Reitei, you piece of shit, come out here so I can mess up your ugly-ass face a little better!"

No response.

All right! Damage from the inside it is, then!

I extinguished the flames and leapt into the temple, and as soon as my sandals hit the ground, I burst into a sprint, all the while cackling like an idiot. Damn, this was gonna be awesome!

Basically, though, getting in there was winging it. It's not like I know directions! I just ran in and attempted not to get sidetracked.

Once I got into the large chamber where Gray, Lucy, Happy and I had fallen through the floor, I stopped. My hands placed on my hips with a defiant grin stretching from ear to ear, I snickered to myself. "Enjoy the earthquake!"

Again, the bastard ignored me. Bastard.

Maybe he'd stop ignoring me when his little Moon Drip didn't work anymore.

The grin disappeared. "Nothin' to say, Lyon? Well then! I'm all fired up!"

Another burst of flame surrounded my hands, warm to the point where any other wizard would lose their arms. But not me. I'm a Fire Dragon Slayer. I was raised by a dragon. I was abandoned by said dragon. I can kill a dragon.

Aren't you glad I'm on your side?

There was a pillar in front of me, a large support pillar of thick limestone. Of course. The basement. The words "first victim" flashed across my vision.

"IRON FIST OF THE FIRE DRAGON!"

I leapt up and at the pillar, the fire magnifying the strength of my fists by a factor of [insert impressive number], and slammed through it like it was made of paper mâché. Then I moved to the next one, pushing off the rubble and cutting directly through two in a row. Basically, I went through everything like this until I had destroyed all the support columns on the left side of the pyramid.

The entire structure let off a groaning sound and began to shake erratically, swaying in time with my dancing flames, and then finished by tilting entirely to the left on a diagonal.

Satisfied, I dropped down to the ground on both feet and clapped my hands to get the dust off. "Job well done, Salamander! Damn well, if I do say so myself. Now where's Lyon?"

Lyon?

Wait. There was a strange smell in the air. Coldish. Evilish. And not that good. That must've been him. And whaddaya know, he was right above me, from the feel of it!

I pointed my head up to the ceiling and let out a furious roar, and a brilliant column of dragon fire exploded from my mouth to completely decimate the surface above me and carve a neat hole right above.

"What's the meaning of this?" exclaimed a very familiar voice. The f**king Reitei himself!

Another voice it erupted him with a casual laugh. "I should have expected Salamander to make the first move. No surprise here."

You're damn straight.

I let out a gleeful laugh and placed my hands on my hips as Lyon and two other guys looked over the sized of the hole, each with a different expression. The cat-dude looked about to shit himself, Lyon looked like he wanted to run me through with something spiky, and the masked guy looked like he was enjoying this as much as me.

"Hahaha! Ya know, I usually destroy things on accident. Do you know how hard it is to blow shit up when you're actually trying to?"

Right now, Lyon's death glare could make a satanist run crying to the nearest church. "What the hell are you doing here?!"

"I'm knockin' this shitty temple over. If it's not straight," I said, raising the volume of my voice from annoying to fiendishly irritating, "you can't shine your Moon Drip down on that demon downstairs!"

"Insolent fool!" he yelled—which really wasn't that loud but a big step up for him. "Who do you think you are? You dare challenge me?"

The cat-dude—I think his name was Toby or something—had no idea what was going on, it was obvious. "...What exactly is happening here?"

The other guy, the masked one, explained, "Apparently Salamander is the reason that the temple is crooked now. I'm actually quite surprised the dolt figured this one out." Then he plastered on this cocky smile, which really pissed me off.

I set fire to the bottom of my shoes with an angry frown, yelling, "You gonna fight me or what?"

Lyon's expression said all I needed to know.

I launched myself up into the air with a roar, slamming headfirst into his torso. He gave off a minute cry of pain me flew up with me into the air, my momentum carrying him higher and higher. I didn't really expect him to fight back.

Of course, I didn't expect him to turn into ice either, but that's not the point.

Still sailing through the air, I watched with wide eyes as Lyon's body became a cracked piece of blue ice, and then shattered, the pieces raining down on me like a miniature hailstorm. Was it Ice Make magic?

Instinctively, I spun around, just as a sky-blue magic circle appeared in front of the real Lyon. And if his ridiculous yet creepy expression was any indication of how he felt, he planned to kill me. "Can't dodge in midair! Ice Make: Eagle!"

Crap! Thinking fast as the volley of frozen birds shot towards me, I unleashed another roar of fire from my mouth, pushing me down so I slammed down onto my back as they sailed past my head and collided with the far wall.

For a moment, I tasted blood in my mouth, but I'd die before I let something as trivial as that stop me. I kicked myself off the ground and into a handstand, and with another well-aimed kick I sent a torrent of flames towards Lyon's head. He ducked under them like they were nothing, mumbling to himself like a senile old geezer.

"What kind of ridiculous magic is this?"

"My kind!" I replied in fervor, and this time he had to leap into the air to escape the next assault of fire.

And then I had an ironic idea. Midair, was it? I let out the strongest burst of dragon fire from my mouth that I could towards him—and he was free-falling, just like I had been. Take that, jackass!

The flame was about a meter from slamming into him head-on when I fell through the floor.

I caught a last glimpse of that masked guy holding a hand out towards me to use a magic spell, and then my eyes slipped past the ground level and I crashed head-first into the ground.

I heard the sound of Lyon landing, and then the man's voice said, "You're lucky, Reitei. Fortune is on your side."

"Don't lie," he replied briskly. "That was your magic, wasn't it?"

"...Yes. You see, you need your full strength to defeat Deliora, so we can't have you wasting your magic energy on a brat like him. And heaven forbid he did something to endanger your safety."

Brat like me? Asshole! Oh, I'd like to blow him up along with the temple. And who knew? Maybe I'd get the chance.

Apparently, Lyon didn't like that answer. As I righted myself and shook the charred remains of what had once been limestone blocks, I heard him growl in distaste. "Are you implying that I might fall victim to such paltry magic?" And then it got colder—a shitload colder. He must have frozen the whole upstairs area, there was no other way it'd be this chilly.

"Leave me. I can take care of the little bastard myself."

As I reemerged from the floor below, Lyon's eyes locked on me carried all the outrage and anger of a killer; and that was just his eyes. Everything about him, from his clenched fists to his rigid posture to the frozen shell of a building that surrounded him, screamed fury. How could Gray have ever really been friends with a guy like him?

"Once I defeat Deliora," he hissed, "everyone will worship my name. Reitei Lyon Vastia. And no wizard, Fairy Tail brat or not, will stop me before I achieve my goal."

"So you're gonna try and defeat Deliora?" Well, wasn't that idiotic, even by my standards. I pulled myself out of the hole and stood in front of him. "The goddamn thing looks half-dead already! Lemme get this straight. You're hurting the villagers and going through all this trouble to melt the ice sealing Deliora, just so you can fight it?! I mean, A for effort, but seriously."

"I must rise above Ur's legacy," he exclaimed, launching those damn eagles at me again. "No matter what, I won't stop until I've fulfilled my dream!"

I jumped out of the way of every blast of ice he fired, responding as I somersaulted out of range. "Why go this far? Couldn't you just challenge her and be done with it?"

As soon as I said that, I knew I made a mistake. A pained look settled in his features, and he responded grimly, "I would if it were possible, but my teacher Ur has been dead for years!"

Oh. I remembered now. Hadn't Gray told me this before? The master that had taught both of them Ice Make magic had "sacrificed everything" to seal it away. I guess that meant she really was dead—I can give Gray all the shit he can handle, but I trust him. If he said she was dead, she was dead.

Our fight had drawn to a standstill, at least on my side, but Lyon didn't seem like he wanted to stop the fight. "I didn't realize she had died trying to seal it."

Angry, he pulled his lips back into a grimace. "Yes, she did lose her life. But she'd still be alive if it wasn't for Gray!" And then he pulled his hand back away from me, and I turned around to be greeted by an ice eagle to the face.

At the last moment, I threw up my arm to cover my face, and the bird slammed into it with minimal impact.

"Look, I don't know what the hell happened to you in the past, but I do know what you're doing in the present. And it's hurting a lot of innocent people who don't have anything to do with it. And since you don't realize it yourself?"

I held my left hand out to the side, and within an instant it was engulfed in flame.

"I'll have to knock some sense into ya!"

Something seemed to flash behind his eyes, like a memory or a long-forgotten dream, but he shook it off and within another instant was as cold as ever.

"This might go on forever," I said, "so you may as well just give up."

"I'd never give you that satisfaction."

"Then you're asking for an ass-kickin'!"

"Am I now?" he replied, an amused look on his face. He began to prepare another attack, and I got ready to take the offensive, when suddenly a huge crack appeared in the icy wall next to me.

What the hell?

"What is this?" Lyon gritted.

Gray. That must be it. I felt a twinge of annoyance at the thought that he'd cut through the fight and take my place. I got here first, asshole. You have to wait in line for this one.

But it wasn't him. Instead, when the ice shattered, it was at the point of a sword, and after the blade withdrew a complete stranger stepped through the created hole.

"...It's you, from before!" Lyon exclaimed.

"Man, am I crappy with directions. Should have just made the blonde show me where this place was."

And when I saw him, I almost had a heart attack.

Double. The guy looked so much like Lyon, I had to bite my lip to keep from saying, "Ah, Christ, they're multiplying." He even had the spiked blue hair, although his was noticeably darker and messier. He looked a little stronger than Lyon, too, with a lean but built figure. Certainly strong. Actually, he wasn't that much taller-looking than me. Or older. In fact, even the way he stood reminded me of me, except clearly a little calmer.

That wasn't what freaked me out, though. It was the horrible wounds covering almost every inch of his goddamn torso that scared me. I've seen my share of injuries, but how the hell was this guy still alive with that type of physical damage? There's a limit to what a human body could take. Add that to the giant hole in his lower torso, right where a stomach should be, and I was downright spooked.

"Hey, you."

Me?

He pointed the sword at me. "Yeah, you. Is this the island's temple?"

"Dunno." God, that looked painful. Was he in pain? That must hurt so badly.

"Are you okay, man?" I asked. He said nothing, just locked his angry blue eyes on mine and sheathed his sword with a wince.

He looked down slowly, his pained gaze traveling from the white scarf given to me by my foster dad/dragon/mentor Igneel to the fire in my hands, and he ignored every word I said.

"...Pyromaniac, huh. What's your name?"

"Natsu."

"Are you the...Fire Dragon Slayer that Scarlet wouldn't quit bitching about?"

"Oh, crap, Erza's here?" I gulped.

"Is that a yes?"

"Maybe."

"It's not a hard question."

"The answer's yes unless Erza sent you."

Lyon watched all of this with mouth slightly agape, but of course the attention hog just had to butt in. "I...I saw you turn into a beast by jumping directly into the Moon Drip. What on earth happened to you, to turn you back?"

Recognition. That was what I saw in the newcomer's eyes, and it melted into annoyance within a second. "You! Bastard, why the hell did you attack me? What's your goddamn problem?"

"Nobody is allowed near the Moon Drip! Not when I'm so close!"

"So close to what?"

"That's none of your business!" he shot back.

"You're really something else, a right—"

And then the wall on the other side of me began to crack, and through the impact crater came Gray Fullbuster himself.

He took one look into the room and blinked, his gaze fixing on the person across from him. "...Holy crap, is that you, Six?"

That recognition thing happened to the guy—Six—again. "Stripper."

"What is going on here?!" Lyon exclaimed.

I took a single long look at the reflections of the four of us in the walls. An egotistical emperor. A stripper. A dragon boy. And a half-dead...was he even human?

Only four words were able to form in my mind—

Shit just got complicated.

...

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**Heyo! I'm back! I hope you liked this, because I like when people like it. Read, review, follow, whatever your heart tells you. And if you have any ideas for Segunda Etapa Grimmy, lemme know.**

**Next chapter: The fight for Galuna comes to a close, no matter how long I make the chapter to fit it in, and at last Grimmy gets some treatments for his wounds. About time, too!**

**Well, that's it. Ciao!**


	5. Thanks Where it's Due

**Heyo! At this moment, 9:58 PM, I pronounce myself the proud owner of no life.**

**Oh, Internet, ain't you proud?**

**Seriously. I'm antisocial and I blame all of you... Just kidding I love you don't kill me.**

**I just finished watching Wall-E and realized how amazing it we once again. Oh well. GOD BLESS MO.**

**This chapter! Fighting, failing, owning and ceroing! In that particular order. Enjoy, read, review, and the like!**

* * *

Chapter Five: Thanks Where it's Due

...

* * *

Grimmjow

...

Do you know how disconcerting it is to switch between Vasto Lorde and Adjuchas?

Of course you don't. After all, you're not me. But I'm sure that—however untrustworthy I may be—you can believe me when I tell you that it's f**king strange.

One second, you're tied down by a redhead knight in a goddamn tent in a place that you don't recognize, the next, you make a jailbreak; only as soon as your four panther feet hit the ground, a strange sensation comes over you, and without warning you're suddenly human again and standing on two feet and you lose your balance in a wild frenzy to run but you keep running anyway despite the pain from all your previous injuries because you just don't wanna be near those people anymore. Now add the random villagers watching and screaming as you transform and you pretty much have it made.

By it, of course, I mean humiliation and annoyance and confusion and all of those things, added to the fact that you still don't quite get why you were an Adjuchas in the first place.

This place was just...weird. Really messed up. I used to think that Hueco Mundo was a strange place, but in comparison to what I've seen here, it really wasn't. This island—Galuna Island—had already managed to somehow get me into an even worse condition, stranded with multiple people who used magic that wasn't supposed to exist, gotten me changed from Vasto Lorde to Adjuchas and back, and increased my power enough that I was having trouble controlling it. All within barely half a day, too. Damn. That Kubo! Why does he just have to make things so annoying?

Worst of all, that moon. That full moon. It just wasn't right.

It also had a purple tint, I remembered this.

Man, was I glad I wasn't escaping during the night.

My reason for trying to blow up the blonde one was this—if I went to this temple where I had transformed back into an Adhuchas, I would find the Fire Dragon Slayer that Scarlet kept telling me she was looking for. She had said something at one point about him cauterizing my wounds, and despite my initial adversity to it, it was better that than bleeding to death from the ice maker's wounds.

And speaking of said ice maker.

Currently, I was standing in a room with him to my left, and he looked about ready to kill the guy at my right. Stripper, I think they said his name was Gray, had come into the room across from me. I think he could use an ice magic too. But I wasn't really interested in the other ice maker—Lyon, I think?—or Gray. I was interested in the pyromaniac.

Again, without meaning to or trying, my gaze locked on him. He didn't seem as strange as some of the people I had seen, like Laxus or Scarlet or that dark-haired girl who I still didn't know the name of. Not that he looked normal. He looked like he punched things for fun—as much as I hated Scarlet, she was right in assuming we'd get along in that sense. Definitely younger than me, I could tell it by his huge smile that seemed too juvenile to have an owner in the twenties. And I know my hair's oddly-colored, but...pink? Pink!? Just...why? And that scarf around his neck was a bit strange-looking, like it was made of white scales. Certainly looked like spoils from a dragon.

Natsu. That's what Scarlet had called him. That's what he had said.

Natsu Dragneel, the Fire Dragon Slayer.

Just the goddamn last word alone sent a pleased shudder up my spine, although I tried not to show how excited I was in front of him. Someone with the title of a Slayer had to be strong, right? Despite my condition, I was on my toes, excited beyond my capacity for containment. In him, in this kid—Natsu—I saw a person I could have a real fight with.

...Except I also saw a little bit of Kurosaki, which really killed my enchantment. First and foremost, I wanted to finish my fight with Ichigo. But fighting the Dragon Slayer would be...fun.

The second he saw me staring at him, Natsu's smile disappeared, replaced by a look of absolute shock and horror. I couldn't blame him—not when I looked like the shit I looked like.

"Holy crap, are you okay?"

I nodded, obviously a blatant lie. I mean, it was probably worse than even I thought if he was looking at me that way. If he bought it, he was an idiot of catastrophic proportions.

Instead, Gray let out a scoff. "Of course he's not, you idiot. Look at his wounds."

Natsu's head cocked to the side, and I felt my hopes that he might have some smidgen of maturity crash and burn. "But he said he was fine—"

"Sarcasm, Natsu."

"...Aaaaaaand that would explain why he doesn't look fine."

"Gee, thanks for having my conversation for me," I snarked. "I feel so welcome."

"I was right, though."

He got me there. I didn't respond, instead moving my zanpakutô's sheath with a wince and turning towards Natsu. "So...you can use fire?"

At this, his grin reappeared, and he turned up the heat in his flames as a result. "You're damn straight I can."

"How skilled are you at cauterizing these?" I said, pointing to the worst of them.

An uncertain look suddenly replaced his confident bravado, and he crossed his arms. "Look, I know this is gonna sound jerky, but I'm in the middle of a fight—"

"Not anymore, you're not," Gray intervened.

"What?!"

Lyon gritted his teeth in annoyance—at me or the two of them, I couldn't be sure. "Gray, stepping in to fight is pretty damn honorable of you...or is it suicide?"

Natsu yelled, "No way in hell, asshole! You've already lost to him once, no need to make it a streak."

I couldn't help it, I scoffed and locked my eyes on Gray. "Nice job, pansy."

"I'm sorry, do you want Natsu to close your wounds or not, Six?" he snapped in reply.

"Hey, you can't fricking sell my services without asking!"

"He asked as nicely as he plans to."

Wow. He was pretty spot-on with being me. Maybe I should just Sharpie a six on his back and be done with it.

Gray stepped out between Lyon and Natsu with a hand to the side, obviously trying to block Natsu from fighting—probably not the brightest idea. "It's time you and I settle things, Lyon. Who cares if you beat me? It won't happen again."

After a moment of staring at Gray like he wanted to run him through with something spiky, Lyon straightened up. "Hm. You seem awfully confident."

"I am. You're right, Lyon. I'm the one who's to blame for Ur's death."

"Oh?" replied Lyon almost silently.

"Yeah. But you're still no better than me. You threatened my friends, hurt the villagers, and now you're trying to destroy what Ur gave her life to create. It's time we accept our punishments for what we've done."

I couldn't understand the context, but it didn't take a genius to realize they were talking about something serious.

"Natsu," Gray said, sinking into a fighting stance, "take care of Six's wounds. I'll handle this however I have to."

"Umm..." Natsu shot a quick look at me, then at Lyon, then back to Gray, and made a grudging decision. He ran over to me with a strange contemplative look on his face, like he was thinking hard about something. Meanwhile, Gray began explaining a something to Lyon, but I tuned the two of them out as Natsu plopped down next to me.

I honestly didn't have the strength to resist him, not that I really wanted to. Slowly, I sank to the ground and sat down, wincing when I leaned back a little and felt the sting of the cold air on my neck.

"Your name's Six, right?"

"Whatever."

"Jeez. Cold much?"

"I've had a really shitty few days."

"No kidding. Hey, I gotta warn you," said Natsu with a laugh that was only half sincere, lifting his hands up and surrounding them with a layer of flames that looked awfully hot. "I'm not too good with this constructive shit."

"I don't need to look like a supermodel." Slowly, I motioned to the marks on my chest, which crossed the large scar already on my chest in multiple areas. "Just try and get the parts on my chest first. Leave the worst to the professionals."

"It's gonna hurt."

I scoffed. "How do you think I felt when I got the damn wounds?"

"Bad."

"...No shit."

"Well, better now than never?"

"Sure." I closed my eyes in anticipation. "Just get it over with."

"Okay then." He pressed his hand down on to my chest, and my whole body stiffened as I felt the searing heat on my skin. Surprising even myself, I didn't make a sound—it must have been the remnants of my hierro protecting me from the full pain of the flames. But I still felt something like an electric jolt run down my spine as the pain moved across my wounds.

At one point, Natsu gave me a weird look, but I shook it off and turned to look at Gray and Lyon to see if anything mildly interesting was happening.

I figured something was wrong when I tuned back into the conversation and heard Lyon trying to rapid-fire talk him out of something.

"Iced Shell?! Don't be foolish, Gray! You know perfectly well what the consequences are."

A harsh blast of chilling wind slammed into me, almost knocking me over, but I kept my balance and managed to stay upright. It took me a moment to realize it was coming from Gray, who was now standing in some strange stance with his arms crossed over each other and palms facing opposite directions. Something about that stance looked really serious, like he was going to do something intense.

And Gray's expression at that moment didn't exactly rebut my hypothesis. "That's right. So I'm going to accept them, right now."

"Are you f**king insane? You wouldn't dare!"

"Oh? If you want to stop me, then leave Galuna and turn the villagers back to their human forms." A bright blue magic circle appeared below his feet, generating another blast of cold air that—this time—almost made me fall over. "If you agree to that, I'll stop. Otherwise, you're not getting out of here alive."

Natsu swore and shot straight up, and in his haste to move he dragged his hand across one of the scarce uninjured parts of my chest. "F**k! I knew something was wrong!"

"Watch it, idiot," I grumbled with an impromptu yelp, seething as I lifted an arm to shield me from the wind. "What the hell are they doing?"

"I'm practically done anyway," he rushed, standing quickly and stepping out in front of me so he could see Gray a little better. "If he's doing what I think he is, he's a damn idiot."

"What is he doing?" I asked, standing up with a hand on my zanpakutô.

"So before, when I was fighting Lyon," he began to explain, "he told me that his master Ur died a long time ago. Before that, Gray told me about this Ice Make spell known as Iced Shell, which kills the user to seal the target in unmeltable ice."

"So it'd kill him if he used it."

"He won't use it!" he said quickly, but he didn't believe it from what I could see.

Lyon looked like he was having the same thoughts as Natsu at about the same time. "I don't believe a word of it," he finally said, though there was still a glimmer of uncertainty in his eyes. "You're bluffing."

Another burst of energy blasted outward from Gray, setting the whole room awash with blinding light. "No I'm not."

"Then you'll die!" Lyon raised a hand up and launched a volley of ice eagles once more, but the buffeting winds threw him back against the wall and he missed by a mile.

Natsu and I were both still standing despite the wind, although Natsu was slipping a little. "Ugh... Gray, don't do it!"

Now Gary was shouting. "All these years, I've lied to myself! I didn't want to admit that she died because of me, but she did! And it's time I took responsibility, so I will. Here and now. I'm not afraid to die, if that's what it takes!"

Lyon got up and forced himself up to his knees. "Stop this, now!"

"What's it gonna be, Lyon? Death, or life? It's up to you."

"You wouldn't!" Lyon said with a smirk. "You're not brave enough to give your life. You're nothing but a coward!"

Gray was silent for a moment, and all I heard was the roaring sound of the wind. "Just watch me."

"STOP IT, GRAY!" Natsu roared.

"ICED SHELL!—"

"SHUT UP!"

And Natsu promptly punched Gray in the face.

What the actual f**k.

Instantly, the wind and glowing light show disappeared, leaving in its place a very flustered Gray, a slightly relieved Lyon, and a livid Natsu. And me. I would have facepalmed if I wasn't still wondering what the hell was wrong with these people.

"Natsu!" Gray roared.

"Hey, shut the hell up, Gray!" he said with a pout. "You can't just bust in and steal my fight with a bunch of fancy talk! Get to the back o' the line, pal!"

"Back of what line?!"

"I was here first, so it's my fight!"

Gray leaped to his feet, and instantly the whole thing started to look like a comedy routine. "What? The first words out of my mouth when I got here were 'leave him to me'!"

"Bullshit. I said 'no way, man', like a second after that!"

Lyon looked directly at me. "Do you see this?" he asked.

"I see it, but I don't want to."

Gray looked about to murder Natsu at this point. "Why, you..."

"What? You want some?" he snickered.

An instant later, he grabbed at Natsu's scarf and pulled him in close. "I don't care who said what! Lyon and I have a score to settle, you understand? And I'm ready to die if that's what it takes!"

Natsu, suddenly serious, grabbed Gray's wrist. "Yeah? And how's dying gonna settle it? 'Cuz it sounds like you're running away to me."

The two of them stared at each other for a very intense moment, and that's when the temple started to shake.

"Aaaagh! What now?!"

As the four of us watched, the temple slowly righted itself, making the surface flat again.

"F**K!" Natsu yelled, and began dashing around like an idiot, bashing his fists and feet against the ground it no avail. It was pretty funny to watch, but nobody was laughing.

"Not good," Gray said. "If the temple's upright, then the Moon Drip will shine down on Deliora again."

"Deliora?" I asked.

Natsu yelled a couple more curses and attempted to torch the floor again as he said, "Stupid—bastard—downstairs—I—hate—this—damn—temple—"

Thanks for that. That really explained it.

"Remember that Moon Drip I told you about in the tent?" Gray asked. "It's used to undo magic seals. Lyon's trying to free a demon held in the basement of this temple."

"Damn—it—all—to—hell—"

"Ah," I said.

At this point, another person stepped through the hole Gray had created in the wall. A small man wearing a tribal mask stepped through and walked over to Lyon with a smirk.

"Pardon the interruption."

Lyon scoffed lightly. "I should have known. I take it this is your doing, Zalty?"

Zalty nodded. "Indeed, sir. The moon will be out soon, so I took the liberty of righting the temple."

"That guy fixed it on his own?" Gray exclaimed.

"And after I went through all that shit to bust it up..." Natsu lifted a fist in the air and yelled, "Hey, so what'd you do to fix it, huh?!"

After a moment of staring at the three of us, Zalty began to laugh, one of those types that rubs your spine the wrong way.

"Hey," I growled, "don't look at me when you laugh like that. I'm not the weird one here."

Naturally, Natsu went ballistic when he heard him. "TELL ME WHAT THE HELL YOU DID YOU BASTAAARD!"

"...You know you're insane, right?" I deadpanned.

"SHUT THE HELL UP."

As Zalty stopped laughing, he turned back to Lyon. "I guess it's time for me to commence the Moon Drip ceremony, since it's almost that time of night." With a cheeky little wave—asshole—he ran off the way he came.

And before Gray or I even realized it, Natsu had ran off after him, yelling, "Imma pound him a million—no, a billion times! I'll let you handle the ice guy, Gray."

Gray looked surprised for a moment, then nodded.

"It'll look bad if he kicks your ass again."

"Of course."

"And not just for you."

"I know what you mean."

The two of them locked eyes, smirked, and said, "But for all of Fairy Tail!"

Fairy Tail. Again with that stupid name. How loyal did they have to be to say something like that?

Natsu gave us a thumbs-up and ran off.

"Six, you may wanna stay out of the way for this one."

"No complaints. This has nothing to with me anyway." I leaned back against the wall to the side, right next to the hole I had come in through. "Just kick his ass if you're gonna fight."

Lyon chuckled. "My, you three are certainly interesting. Tell me, Six. Are you one of Fairy Tail's incompetent failures too?"

"Over my dead body," Gray said, to which I chuckled.

"He answered for me."

"Tell me something, Lyon," Gray said coldly. "When I was about to freeze us both, you were relying on Natsu to jump in and stop me, right?"

He shook his head. "The opposite, in fact. I never thought he'd be foolish enough to get close to a spell like that."

"So you were gonna just stand and take the hit?"

"Exactly. Because, even if you froze me, someone would inevitably come and get me out of the ice using Moon Drip. But you'd be gone."

"I should have known."

"Certainly, it'd be a setback if I were frozen, but my allies are as devoted to my cause as I am. They could use Moon Drip to melt the ice whenever they saw fit."

"I didn't think of that before," Gray muttered. "Guess the Iced Shell isn't gonna do any good here."

"Even so, you still want to fight me? After our last fight?" Another smirk appeared on his face as he crossed his arms. "Don't be stupid, you could never—"

"That's enough," Gray said suddenly, cutting him off mid-syllable.

"...What?"

"Just forget about Deliora."

A livid Lyon threw his hands down to the side. "What the hell? What nonsense is this?! Your threats no longer work, so you turn to begging? What, does your guild have a dentist that removes your fangs...or are you just a coward?"

"Lyon, there's something I have to tell you."

"What is it?"

Gray closed his eyes. "Ur is still alive. The Iced Shell turns the body of the user into the barrier. The ice sealing Deliora, which you've been trying to melt, is actually Master Ur."

Lyon's eyes went wide.

And Gray didn't stop. Now there was a softer tone to his voice as he said, "Ur didn't die! She still lives on as that ice... I'm sorry that I never told you before. Ur made me promise not to. She figured that, if you knew, you'd do exactly what you're doing now."

Lyon whispered, "Of course."

"It's over. There's no reason to go through with this anymore!"

I watch as Lyon stepped up to Gray and placed a hand on his chest. With an aqua glow, he sent a torrent of ice straight through him, coming out the other side in the form of a sculpted beast.

"What the hell are you doing?" I said gruffly. I was itching for a fight—and if Gray was done, then it was my turn.

He released Gray with a smirk and turned to me, watching as he fell to the ground, and said, "That fool. Of course I knew how the spell works. But Ur's not alive, I know this for sure. She's nothing but a hunk of ice!"

Gray struggled to push himself off the floor. "You...bastard, you knew all along..."

Lyon's gaze returned to his old comrade on the ground. "Knowing and believing are two different things. And if you truly believe she's still alive, you're a greater fool than even I thought."

"You knew the truth and still did this?!"

"And what of it?" he asked coolly as Gray stood.

Gray let out a furious roar and slammed his fist into Lyon's jawbone, throwing the Reitei back against the wall and leaving a crater in the ice. "You bastard!"

"Impossible," he choked out. "How can you move with those wounds?!"

"Stripper," I said with a laugh, "I'm starting to like you more and more."

I don't think Gray heard me. He seemed pretty damn focused on Lyon right now. "I've had enough," he said to Lyon. "I was trying to save you. But I give up now."

"Hmph." Lyon stood with a snarl and wiped the side of his mouth on his sleeve. "So you want the title of star pupil to yourself? Well, I'm sorry, but I have to fight against Deliora soon, and I'd rather not waste any magic on the likes of you."

"Then we don't need magic."

"Ha! You want me to fight you without magic? That's fine by me!"

Gray roared and rushed at Lyon, fist raised, but Lyon ducked under the coming blow and slammed his fist into Gray's chest right where the wound had been.

"Aim for your opponent's weak spot and hit it with all you've got! Ur taught us that, remember?"

Gray growled and pulled himself out of his fall. "Don't say her name! You don't have the right!" He aimed another loose punch, but Lyon easily took advantage of his bad balance and slammed his knee into his gut.

I watched silently as Gray tried to nullify his disadvantage, but he wasn't doing too well. Lyon would just lay hit upon hit on him, with Gray reacting too late to defend himself. He was clearly losing to my doppelgänger, which was kinda satisfying to watch, although it's pretty clear that the morally questioned one wasn't Gray.

"What a shame. I can't decide which is weaker—your fists or your Ice Make."

Gray stumbled back and reared up for another blow, but a single kick sent him flying. I moved to the side as he slammed into the wall beside me, eyeing him with a disappointed frown.

"I was right," I said. "You are a pansy."

"Hey, back off," he snapped through gritted teeth.

"Go for his arms and legs."

"...What?" He lowered his voice to a whisper.

I rolled my eyes in response. "You're going for the center of his body mass, and he knows it. All your attacks are being telegraphed to him. So this time, go for his limbs when he attacks. He won't be expecting it."

He seemed to have a little trouble accepting my advice—not that it was that complex—but eventually he nodded. Then he laughed and pushed himself off the wall. "You know, Lyon, this right now reminds me of someone else I used to fight with a while ago. Natsu."

Lyon leapt forward with a roar, poised like a wolf to strike, and Gray leapt at him with newfound ferocity. But I guess Lyon's way overtook his, because even with my advice he still got sent back, clear through the ice layer and into the wall.

"Get up, you idiot," I said. "Unless you wanna prove me right."

Panting heavily, Lyon turned away and regained a little of his calm. "That settles it, Gray. You're no match for me after all."

"Hold on, damn it," he whispered, forcing himself to stand. "This fight's not over yet!"

"Raah! I shoulda killed you when I had the chance!"

The two of them ran at each other again, but this time Gray listened to my advice. When Lyon started with the attack, Gray reached for the inside of his arm and threw him away, watching satisfied as Lyon struggled to stand from the cloud of mist his impact created. "You're gonna have to step up your game sooner or later if you wanna beat me!"

"Watch for the ambush," I said, and pointed to the cloud. At that moment, Lyon threw himself back at Gray, slamming his fist into him once again, but Gray recovered quickly and brought his head down on Lyon's. He was met with an armored boot to the face, but came back quickly with a yell.

"I'm not gonna lose, you hear me?!"

The two began exchanging blows, and it don't think they really noticed, but it was like they were taking turns taking hits. One would hit the other and almost immediately have an opening exploited. Huh. I guess they weren't as crappy as I first thought.

"I'M NOT GONNA LOSE, LYON! YOU'RE GOING DOWN!"

"YOU CAN NEVER DEFEAT ME!" he screamed in reply.

And then, with a final blow, Gray threw Lyon down to the ground.

The room was silent as Lyon dragged himself to his feet using the wall behind him. "The Reitei cannot be defeated by the likes of you, Gray Fullbuster."

"Then get off your ass and fight."

"I've had enough! Ice Make: Snow Dragon!" He held his hand high above his head, summoning a colossal dragon made of ice. The monster swooped down towards Gray and grabbed him in its jaws, lifting him high—but one well-aimed chop and Gray cut through the figure, tumbling to the ground on the far side of the battleground.

"Nrgh! I thought we made a deal not to use magic."

"Don't be such a sore loser. This battle was pointless to begin with. Deliora will wake anyway. Alas, it's far too late to stop me now!"

Surprisingly, Gray got up once more and said, "That doesn't mean I'm gonna stop trying!"

Lyon ripped his cloak off his shoulders. "Try all you want. Zalty will begin the Moon Drip ceremony any minute now!"

"Natsu won't let him," he said with a smirk, stealing the look off Lyon's face. "The second you underestimate him is the second you lose."

A few moments later, the temple began to shake again. "I got a bad feeling that ain't Natsu."

"Hah! The ceremony is nearing completion. The ice sealing Deliora has begin to melt away. There's nothing you can do about it. Your mission has failed!"

Lyon moved his hand to the side, and a frosty wind began to circle him. "Do you know how long I've waited for today, Gray? Ten years. All that time, gathering information and allies. And I just happened to stumble upon this place, an island where you can collect moonlight to undo even the most powerful of spells."

He brought his hand towards Gray, summoning salvo after salvo of eagles as he continued to talk. "It wasn't easy, bringing Deliora here from Brago, but we did it! Three years to complete the process!"

"Three years?!" Gray exclaimed, summoning a frozen shield to deflect all the projectiles. "That's how long you've wasted on this stupid plan?"

That's when Lyon snapped.

"Stupid?! How dare you say that?! You've spent the past ten years wallowing in your guilt and meddling your life away!"

He sent another bird, this one larger than the rest, but with his sanity still intact Gray sidestepped with ease.

"That's because I put my faith in Ur's teachings! She said that there were strong wizards to the west, so I went west. And I found Fairy Tail, and powerful wizards, just like she said there would be! After everything Ur did for us, you'd destroy her without caring. You make me sick!"

"Say what you will, I don't care. This is the course my life has taken. Ur is long dead. If we want to prove we've surpassed her, what else is there to do?! There's only one answer!"

He held his hand out in front of him, encasing it in a layer of carved ice shaped like a wolf, and leapt at Gray with a fury in his eyes. "Deliora! I will surpass our master by defeating what she could not!"

Gray somehow managed to avoid every blow, yelling, "Sure, that's ambitious, but I feel like you've missed the point somewhere along the line!"

At the last moment, he summoned a sword of ice crystal and cut through Lyon's weapon, leaving a stupefied look on his face. "SOMEONE AS BLIND AS YOU COULD NEVER SURPASS UR. WAKE UP, LYON!"

He lifted the sword and slashed through Lyon's torso, but a moment later Lyon exploded into shards of ice. The real Lyon revealed himself behind Gray. "Fooled you, eh? Ice Make: Snow Tiger!"

The tiger appeared and pounced on Gray, but he leapt above and summoned an intricate cage around it. "See this, Lyon? This is you. A beast in a cage. Lashing out at a world he barely knows."

"Utter nonsense! I'll make quick work of this!" He began to move his hands to control the tiger's movements, but the cage was too strong for it. "What?"

As Gray leapt down, he said, "Single-handed Maker magic is weaker and unbalanced. Your creations will let you down when you need them most." He slammed his fist into his palm and raised his hands above him like he was drawing an arrow, but instead of a bow a bazooka appeared in his grip. "Ice Cannon!"

I watched silently as a torrent of fluid ice shot from the head of the cannon, engulfing Lyon entirely and blasting an enormous hole through the side of the structure. When it disappeared, a stupefied Lyon was left on his knees at the edge of the building.

"Ur taught us that, remember?"

"G...Gray..." Lyon stammered, but before he had finished the word he was lying breathless on his back. Hopefully unconscious.

Gray stood up as straight as he could and immediately doubled over, clutching his stomach in pain. "Man, I should have sealed this earlier." He placed his hands on his worst wound, covering it in a protective layer of ice.

Bastard. He could use that, and he had let Natsu do it?

"You're an asshole," I hissed.

"I was busy before, sorry."

For an eerie moment, the area was suddenly silent.

And then I heard the loudest roar I had ever heard in my life.

Gray froze in place, terror evident in his eyes. "I could never forget that sound."

Lyon, unable to move, whispered a single word, completing Gray's sentence.

"Deliora."

...

* * *

Lucy

...

That sound. That horrible sound!

Natsu and Gray must have...failed?!

No. That was impossible.

Natsu was better than that.

He wouldn't lose.

I let off a shriek and fell to my knees, hands pressed over my ears until it died down enough for me to stand.

"That's not promising," Erza said nervously.

Happy, on the other hand, had a complete total freakout, shrieking "MAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOP!"

Finally, when he calmed down, I said, "What the hell was that? It sounded like a monster!"

As Erza led the three of us towards the temple's entrance, Halpy chuckled viciously. "It's probably just your growling stomach."

"You know, you're not half as funny as you think you are."

"Pfft. You're just jealous of my moves—"

"Demon cat."

"Lucy," Erza asked, "you think that sound could have been Deliora?"

"I sure hope not! Because that would mean...THEY BROUGHT IT BACK TO LIFE?!"

Another horrible shriek, quieter this time, echoed within the temple. "It must be the monster."

"Luce, you need to eat something!"

"AND YOU NEED TO SHUT YOUR TRAP BEFORE I DO IT FOR YOU."

Erza began to run towards the center of the temple, calling, "Come on! The Moon Drip is still active, so that must mean it's not fully revived yet. All we have to do is stop the ceremony and things will be easier."

"But Deliora's below us," I said, motioning to the floor.

"Our only hope is to stop the ceremony, so hurry!"

I sighed and followed her to the stairs, and the three of us quickly ran up to the top level of the temple. As soon as we emerged, Erza slashed the first person she saw, which thankfully happened to be the guy doing the ceremony and not one of us. It was Toby, the cat/dog person who Natsu had tricked into defeating himself. Idiot.

Happy grinned as Toby fell backwards, and he yelled, "the Moon Drip should stop any minute now!"

A second later, the purple magic circle on the ground disappeared, taking with it the Moon Drip.

But Toby grinned and yelled, "Too late! It's done! The ceremony's already been completed!"

No sooner had he finished when a giant beam of green light replaced the Moon Drip, shining from the bottom of the temple as Deliora roared again.

"No...no way..."

We failed.

...

* * *

Natsu

...

I couldn't believe it.

I had finished my fight with that bastard Zalty, but I had been too late. And right before me was the demon that I had promised Gray I'd stop.

I felt like a miserable failure.

"N...no," I whispered.

And then, when the beast roared again, I head another voice in the chamber with me. Gray.

"Thank you, Ur..."

I bounded across the rubble of the underground area, coming to a stop on a ledge above Gray. In his hands was a trickle of water from the Iced Shell, and standing behind him was Six, looking a little annoyed by this whole thing.

"What're you doin' here, Gray?" I asked.

"Natsu—" he began softly.

"There's only one thing we can do now—we gotta take that bastard down!"

I suddenly noticed a shuffling sound near the floor, and I turned to see Lyon dragging himself towards us with a crazed expression on his face. How the hell had he found himself here?! Six stepped aside to give him a wide berth, clearly uninterested in what was happening.

"No..." Lyon whispered hoarsely. "None of you...are strong enough for this! Only I am. I will defeat it..."

Gray's eyes narrowed at the pitiful sight. "Lyon..."

"Finally," he said with a soft chuckle, "finally I will surpass Ur..."

"Cut the crap," Six yelled suddenly, surprising me. "You're not even able to stand. I could take that thing down one-handed if I was at my best right now, but you let yourself get beaten by a stripper. Miserable bastard."

Another terrible roar came from Deliora's mouth, but Six didn't flinch. "You're pathetic."

"Shut up!" Lyon spat, pulling his mangled body to its feet. "You don't understand this... I've waited my whole life for this moment! Finally, I will realize...my dream!"

I don't think he noticed Six coming up behind him. But he definitely felt the swift chop to the neck he dealt.

"That," he growled as Lyon tumbled to the ground, no longer able to move, "was for attacking me without provocation and being a total smartass."

"You've caused enough trouble," Gray said—not sure which of the two it was directed towards—as he slowly stepped into the frigid waters at Deliora's feet. "I'll clean up your mess and seal the demon!"

I watched, incredulous, as Grey crossed his arms and sank into the Iced Shell stance with no expression and surrounded himself with a shell of blue energy.

"GRAY, NO!" Lyon cried. "Do you have any idea how long it took me to melt that ice?! If you do this you will be crush my dream!"

At that moment, Six let out a pissed shout and drew his sword. "I have had enough of your shit, Lyon! This dream of yours is already dead! Can't you see? That demon is dying!"

"Wh...what?"

I couldn't believe it, and neither could Gray, because the light around him dwindled and died. "I don't get it," he stammered.

Six jumped up with a wince and—get this—stood on the goddamn air above me and in front of Deliora, motioning to the beast as it let off another cry.

"You're all weak as shit! Man, the one place I get trapped in has jack shit in terms of power. But you can't even see that the thing's practically dead!"

To prove his point, he raised a finger towards the monster and shot a beam of bright red light at its figure; and instead of just ricocheting off, it bored a deep hole in its shoulder.

The demon shouldn't be able to get wounded so easily.

It was being decimated.

"No..." Lyon whispered, staring up at Six as if he had discovered the real demon in the room. "This is impossible, you cannot be stronger than me."

"Tch," he refuted. "I don't even think there's a comparison."

He turned his back to us and continued his attack.

As Six opened an enormous hole in the beast's midsection, Gray had an epiphany. "Of course... Ur's attack, ten years ago. She must have wounded the beast enough to weaken it to make it easy to beat."

"So..." I looked to Lyon with a sinking feeling. "It's all been for nothing...?"

Well. Proving he could beat a weakened Deliora was the same as admitting loss.

"No! This can't be happening!" Lyon cried as the beast was knocked to its knees by a hit to the leg.

"I don't want to live on this planet any more," I exclaimed, throwing my hands above my head.

"Join the club," Six scoffed.

He sighed, raising his sword and blowing the entire thing's body apart.

The demon let out a single final roar from the ground and was still.

Six sent a pitying look Lyon's way and sheathed the weapon. "Yeah, strongest, my ass."

Unable to face him, Lyon buried his head in his arms. Proof to me Lyon had a heart to be shattered.

"Yeah, go hide behind your elbows. Very strong of you. Man up."

Satisfied, he dropped out of the sky and landed on one knee with a wince. He had done all that even with his horrible injuries—I felt an excited shiver ride up my spine, but coupled with it was a little bit of apprehension. That power...it wasn't magic, I didn't think so anyway.

What was he?

Bah. I pushed any annoyed or confused thoughts aside. He had killed Deliora. Who cares whatever other shit he did? Like cause subsequent emotional trauma.

Of course, now that the whole Deliora and Lyon deal was over, we all had to go home. And face Master.

And ERZA.

Death would be merciful.

Gray met my gaze, and I could tell he was thinking the same exact thing. "We are so, so royally screwed."

Six looked from me back to Gray, then to Lyon moping on the floor before finally saying, "So...what now?"

"Now?" I sighed. "We face the music."

...

* * *

_Fate_

...

Grimmjow just couldn't understand this whole scenario no matter how hard he tried.

Correction. He could understand a little. He had bits and pieces of what he could understand. But the rest was just a huge blob.

Here's what he had gathered so far—

The people here used "magic".

They were also nuts.

Never ask a person who's nuts and has magic fire powers to cauterize a gaping hole in your chest.

Natsu Dragneel reminded him of Ichigo Kurosaki more than was comfortable.

Also, pink hair. Just...why.

That was one thing that reminded him of Kurosaki.

Erza Scarlet could "Requip" her armor and weapons for other types of apparel at will.

She was also a right bitch, and everyone who knew her thought it to some degree even if they didn't say so.

Reminded him of Tres with less boobs and slightly more randomness.

Gray Fullbuster was an Ice Make wizard with a penchant for losing his pants.

Often.

Lucy used some sort of magic that let her summon something, but he didn't know quite what.

She was also pretty smart at moments...and then a complete idiot at others.

The blue cat was an asshole who'd rather stuff his face than retain sanity.

That guy, Lyon, who was in the temple, was a friend of Gray's and was trying to bring a demon to life so he could kill it.

Lyon had failed.

Team Idiot Sorcerers had won.

The so-called demon had died with little effort on Grimmjow's part.

Lyon had become the subject of an instant pity party, which really pissed Grimmjow off 'cause he didn't think he deserved it for being such a wuss.

Grimmjow had watched.

Apparently, this was all done for reward money, and Natsu and the others went to collect it, so he had followed to the village.

Now they were there.

And nobody was giving them money, so they were busy bitching about it to the village elder with the mongo sideburns.

Grimmjow knew all this. Any normal person would understand how it all fit together. But to him? Well, none of it really made any sense. He basically just sat himself down on a stack of crates within listening distance of the others, staring at the shore of the island and wondering what would happen now.

"Hey, geezer, what about our pay?!"

"And my Gate Key?!"

"And my shirt!"

"Nonsense! You still haven't completed the quest yet!"

"But we defeated the demon!"

"Six defeated the demon, Natsu."

"Well, he don't want the pay. I do."

The Sexta shut his eyes and sighed.

"I never asked you to defeat Deliora!"

"He didn't ask for us to stop Lyon either, now that I think about it."

"Whaaaat?"

"You want my money, then destroy the moon like I asked in the request!"

"...Destroy the moon?!"

Grimmjow's eyes shot open.

"...Fine. Natsu, I'll need your help here."

"HOW THE F**K WOULD WE DO THAT?!

Despite his wounds—which now stung more than ached due to the cauterization that hadn't really helped—the Sexta whirled around to face Erza, stumbling as he jumped off the podium. "What...what did you say?"

Lucy jumped back from him, almost shrieking. "Holy crap, that scared me!"

"Lucy, quiet," Erza ordered, much to the blonde's indignance. Then she replied to him. "The quest requires that, in order to complete it, we destroy the moon. And we're going to do it."

"How?"

Erza jerked a thumb at Natsu. "Natsu will give me the lift I need, and I'll deal the actual damage."

"Um, Erza, I know you and Natsu are really powerful and all, but it's the MOON," Lucy deadpanned.

"We're Fairy Tail, Lucy," said Erza with a rare smirk. "The moon doesn't stand a chance."

At this, Natsu grinned once again. Confident as hell, that was for sure. "Oh, right. I totally forgot! Let's get goin'!"

"Ready, Natsu?"

"Ready—"

"No," the Sexta interrupted suddenly, and before he knew what he was doing, he had pushed past both Erza and Natsu. "I'll do it."

"...Six, don't be stupid." Erza cast a look at him that said she didn't plan to let him do it, but Grimmjow wasn't about to take no for an answer. He didn't need permission to blow shit up before, and he wasn't about to ask for it now.

"In your shitty condition?" Natsu exclaimed.

"Bastard, my condition is none of your business. Do me a favor."

"...Yeah?" he replied with an uncertain quaver.

He grinned as wide as he possibly could without wincing. "As soon as all this crazy shit is over, you and me. One on one."

"That's it?!" After a skeptical moment, he asked, "Are you strong?"

"Why don't you judge from before?"

Natsu leapt into the air and let out a roar of exhilaration, a wave of fire pouring from his jaws into the night air. "All right, I'm all fired up now! Let's see what you're made of!"

Good. Now Grimmjow had something to look forward to.

He also now had something to prove. But he wasn't gonna let that get to him.

Grimmjow got down on one knee and stabbed his zanpakutô into the ground a few inches in, reaching around with his right hand to slide his hand across the blade. Normally, he'd do it with a single finger—but the moon here was pretty damn big, so he'd need more fuel for the attack.

The edge dug into his skin, and he bit at the edge of his lip to keep from making a sound. As he felt the first drop of blood slip between the blade and his palm, he dragged his hand down all the way, and the cut deepened and widened from the ends of his fingers to the length of his palm.

"What are you doing?!" Erza exclaimed, and she made as if to stop him, but one look from him and she didn't pursue that course of action any further.

"You may...wanna take a step back."

Erza took a couple tiny steps back, not taking him very seriously at all.

"More."

A slightly concerned look found its way onto her face, and she moved back a little further. "There's no way this isn't safe."

"Hey, look—you wanna die, stay right there."

Erza spun on her heel, grabbed Natsu's elbow, and dragged him and the others off until they—along with the rest of the townsfolk—were pressed against the borders of the clearing.

"There. That's good enough." The Sexta raised his bleeding hand in front of him and lashed out at the air in front of him as though he was swatting at some unseen enemy, leaving an arc of crimson crimson blood in the air before him. But he left the hand in the air, palm-out and facing that nightmarish silver orb in the sky.

Natsu chose this moment to be obnoxious and yelled, "Hey! Whatever you're planning, just do it already!"

"Don't have a cow, jeez," he snapped, turning his attention back to the moon. Except now his hands were feeling heavy, and he felt that strangely familiar pressure pushing him down on the ground. It was the same one from after the Quinto's attack, which happened what felt like so long ago that he was surprised he remembered what it felt like at all. But he definitely remembered. It was that same crushing feeling as before. He could practically hear all his muscles saying "F**k this shit" as they gave out on him, one by one, leaving a weak shell of an Espada in their place.

And he wouldn't ever admit it, but he was afraid.

Not of this situation, of course. Galuna Island wasn't what scared him, although its weirdness had already been pre-established. He was scared of whatever the mangakas were planning. The fear, it was a type that Grimmjow wasn't used to. Not primal, not of death, just...uncertainty, a fear of the unknown. And since he wasn't used to it, he didn't exactly understand how to hide it either. A trillion questions were running through his brain all at once, and coupled with the sudden moments where everything would go dark and then blurred the confusion wasn't helping at all. What was the whole premise of this entire mangaka escapade? Was it just a game, a plan to get him out of Hueco Mundo for some reason? If that was the case, what in the time after Nnoitra's ambush would lead to the Quincy invasion that Kubo had warned him about? And if that was the case, then why the hell wasn't he there in Hueco Mundo to kick some Quincy ass?! Why was he here? Where was here? Was he ever going back? Or was he doomed to die in this place?

Another moment, a sudden jab to the skull, hit him head on, but he did nothing more than bite the inside of his cheek and rip off a tiny bit of skin to bring himself back to his senses.

He wasn't going to die in a place like this.

But if he was...

His attention was drawn back to the sky.

At least he could make it a little bit more normal before he went out.

His position was slipping—he lifted his left arm up to support his right at the elbow, palm facing the moon as if to snatch it right out from among the stars.

_Come on, come on,_ he coaxed himself, gathering all his spiritual pressure into a blue orb of Hollow power centered on the slash on his palm. And he could almost barely hear his zanpakutô's excited yet strained murmurings. _Don't you dare give up on me now, Pantera._

Finally, he felt the orb shoot off a wave of reiatsu which almost threw him away, but he kept his stance as snaking tendrils of energy started to expand and worm their way outwards. A stray tendril whipped out at one of the nearest storehouses, earning a collective gasp from the watchers when it sliced through the structure like a pair of claws through flesh.

"He's gonna kill us!" Happy shreed.

"It wouldn't be his first try," said Erza with no sarcasm whatsoever.

"I don't wanna die!"

"Then get down, you f**king cat!" Grimmjow all but roared at him. The entirety of the onlookers heeded his advice and dropped down to the ground to protect against the buffeting winds the reiatsu was creating.

"The hell is this, Six?!" Gray exclaimed.

Grimmjow took one last blurred look at that unfamiliar moon above him—and even though he'd never admit it ever, he said a rapid-fire, hastily translated prayer in Spanish that this would fix the whole moon thing for him once and for all.

"Gran Rey Cero!"

The tendrils of blue shrank, collapsed into the orb, and then fired, a dark yet glowing streak of rapidfire movement that snaked through the sky with explosive force. But when it exploded, it didn't just shoot up. It went backwards, towards the user.

Almost immediately, Grimmjow let out a cry of pain as the cero detonated in front of him. The energy was mainly being launched at the moon, but a decent amount of it had ricocheted back to him and reentered his body through the cut on his hand.

He uttered a number of profanities through his gritted teeth, trying to push the rebound back but succeeding in no more than deflecting it from the villagers. And he couldn't help thinking—

_How little control do I really have over my reiatsu now?! What the f**k is this?_

Then he shook off the pain with difficulty and focused on supporting the cero for as long as it took. A trickle of blood escaped from a fresh cut above his eye, dying his vision red.

"Come on, almost!"

And finally, with a bright flash, the cero soared into the sky and collided with the moon.

Or at least, that's what it looked like.

But he felt his hope die when the sound he heard wasn't an explosion, but a shattering sound. A thick crack formed across the moon's facade, quickly spreading along the perimeter of the sky around Galuna. And then with a crash like broken glass, the invisible layer of magic energy that surrounded the island disintegrated into a trillion sparks of pure energy that began to rain down on everything.

The moon was still there.

Grimmjow watched wordlessly as a single sparkle fell down in front of his eyes and landed at his feet.

"Sh-shit," he whispered to himself, something inside him sinking. "I failed."

That was about the moment when Grimmjow lost his futile grip on reality, and the entire world began to spin, and before he knew it he was falling backwards and unable to stop.

"Watch out!"

Erza thought remarkably fast, and she vaulted towards his back at the last moment, diving at him and joltingly breaking his fall just before his body hit the ground. They tumbled together for a few moments, finally coming to a stop in a cloud of dust with Grimmjow letting off another injured shout as he landed on the worst side of his body.

"F**k!"

"Six!" yelled the others, and they all dashed over at varying speeds of urgency to his side. Erza had sat up from under him and now had his head on her lap, a worried look quickly predominating her features.

The village elder looked up to the sky with a tear in his eye and fell to his knees.

"He...he did it. He saved our village..."

_Oh, did I now?_ This was news to Grimmjow, who felt as though his soul was teetering on the edge of an abyss and about to fall. All he had done was use a cero that hadn't worked and had hurt himself instead. Had failing at destroying the moon really been so great for them?

Hmph. Pathetic.

He wasn't sure who his resentment was directed towards.

One by one, the villagers seemed to realize exactly what Grimmjow had done, and each of their reactions ranged from shock to jubilation.

"He did it..."

"I can't believe this!"

"You saved us!?"

"Uwaah! My body! It's normal again!"

"Thank you!"

"We have our memories back!"

"A miracle, a miracle!"

"We are forever indebted to you, young man."

"It's gone! The curse is gone!"

"Thank you, Six!"

_...They're thanking me._

Aww, crap. Now this confusion wasn't helping. Mixed with the unbearable pain from reabsorbing part of his own cero, the gratitude of the villagers was messing with Grimmjow's perception of feeling. He felt...kinda warm inside, to describe it. It wasn't like the vile taste in his mouth when someone looked down on him, or the blinding rage that usually accompanied his attacking frenzies. Just warm. Wasn't sure if it was from fever or something else, but a part of him was secretly hoping it was that same something else.

_Is that what gratitude does?_

_Make me feel...like this?_

_Oh._

_Huh._

_I kinda like this feeling._

A sudden urge to cough hit him, except when he did, he coughed up blood and it completely soured up that warmth inside. But he liked it before. He didn't want to give it up.

Erza yelped and called Lucy and Gray to her side, but the rest of them followed suit anyway. "Gray, go back to the tents and get all our stuff," she ordered.

"We already have all of it with us," he replied. "There's not much at all."

"Then bring me his katan—his zanpakutô," she corrected.

Gray nodded and set to the extraordinary task of wrenching it out of the ground, which wasn't easy for a human.

Natsu peered down at Grimmjow with a strange expression. "He's a real oddball," he murmured, but there was still an interested gleam in his eyes. "Can't wait to fight him!"

"Neither can I" was what he wanted to say. But he couldn't form words right now. His throat felt scraped and rough, like it has been carved with a hacksaw. That warm feeling made him weak inside—as if he wasn't already. Voices faded into background noise, colors blended until everything was just dark. And he heard everything they said, but he couldn't really make much sense of it.

"Come on, Six, hang in there!"

"Six, don't die!"

"Neko!"

"What?! Happy, he's a neko?!"

"A big neko, Natsu! With fangs and everything!"

"Holy f**king shit, that's AWESOME!"

"You idiots, that was only because of the Moon Drip side effects."

"Pffft, details. He's a neko anyway, right, Six?"

"A baka neko, more like—"

"Don't be so rude!"

"Sorry, Luce..."

The last words he heard before everything went black came from Erza, and he wasn't sure if they were supposed to be comforting or a warning.

"Come on, all of you. We're going home."

...

* * *

**Imma clear something up for you. "Fate" is the term I'll use from now on for my third-person moments, which at one point or another, I'll need to make a good story. So...there's that. I hope you guys like the semi-not-really cliffhanger I put in.**

**Next time! The second Espada to arrive in Magnolia finds himself faced with the horrible job of...wait for it...teaching Grimmjow how to apologize. And then he tries it, and let's say that anything bad that could happen will.**

**Well, I'm off then. Since I'm on spring break now *SPRING BREAK*, expect something during the week. Probably more lyrics. Until then, ciao!**


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